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Khotyaintsev YV, Graham DB, Steinvall K, Alm L, Vaivads A, Johlander A, Norgren C, Li W, Divin A, Fu HS, Hwang KJ, Burch JL, Ahmadi N, Le Contel O, Gershman DJ, Russell CT, Torbert RB. Electron Heating by Debye-Scale Turbulence in Guide-Field Reconnection. Phys Rev Lett 2020; 124:045101. [PMID: 32058767 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.124.045101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2019] [Revised: 11/22/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
We report electrostatic Debye-scale turbulence developing within the diffusion region of asymmetric magnetopause reconnection with a moderate guide field using observations by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. We show that Buneman waves and beam modes cause efficient and fast thermalization of the reconnection electron jet by irreversible phase mixing, during which the jet kinetic energy is transferred into thermal energy. Our results show that the reconnection diffusion region in the presence of a moderate guide field is highly turbulent, and that electrostatic turbulence plays an important role in electron heating.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - D B Graham
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 75121, Sweden
| | - K Steinvall
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 75121, Sweden
| | - L Alm
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 75121, Sweden
| | - A Vaivads
- Department of Space and Plasma Physics, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm 11428, Sweden
| | - A Johlander
- Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland
| | - C Norgren
- University of Bergen, Bergen 5007, Norway
| | - W Li
- State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - A Divin
- Earth Physics Department, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg 198504, Russia
| | - H S Fu
- School of Space and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - K-J Hwang
- Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas 78228, USA
| | - J L Burch
- Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas 78228, USA
| | - N Ahmadi
- Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA
| | - O Le Contel
- Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Sud, and Observatoire de Paris, Paris, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
| | - D J Gershman
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
| | - C T Russell
- University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
| | - R B Torbert
- University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA
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Steinvall K, Khotyaintsev YV, Graham DB, Vaivads A, Le Contel O, Russell CT. Observations of Electromagnetic Electron Holes and Evidence of Cherenkov Whistler Emission. Phys Rev Lett 2019; 123:255101. [PMID: 31922784 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.123.255101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2019] [Revised: 10/04/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
We report observations of electromagnetic electron holes (EHs). We use multispacecraft analysis to quantify the magnetic field contributions of three mechanisms: the Lorentz transform, electron drift within the EH, and Cherenkov emission of whistler waves. The first two mechanisms account for the observed magnetic fields for slower EHs, while for EHs with speeds approaching half the electron Alfvén speed, whistler waves excited via the Cherenkov mechanism dominate the perpendicular magnetic field. The excited whistler waves are kinetically damped and typically confined within the EHs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konrad Steinvall
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 75121, Sweden
- Space and Plasma Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Uppsala 75120, Sweden
| | | | | | - Andris Vaivads
- Division of Space and Plasma Physics, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm 11428, Sweden
| | - Olivier Le Contel
- Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique/Sorbonne Université/Univ. Paris Sud/Observatoire de Paris, Paris, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
| | - Christopher T Russell
- Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
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