SH020-05
The properties of turbulence in Earth’s magnetosheath and their influence on small-scale magnetic reconnection events

Wednesday, 9 December 2020: 10:46
Virtual
Julia E Stawarz1, Jonathan P Eastwood2, Tai Phan3, Imogen Gingell4, Alfred Mallet5, Michael A Shay6, Prayash Sharma Pyakurel7, James L Burch8, Robert Ergun9, Barbara L Giles10, Daniel J Gershman10, Olivier Le Contel11, Per-Arne Lindqvist12, Christopher T Russell13, Robert J Strangeway14, Roy B Torbert15, Matthew R Argall16, David Fischer17 and Werner Magnes18, (1)Imperial College London, Department of Physics, London, SW7, United Kingdom, (2)Imperial College London, Physics, London, SW7, United Kingdom, (3)Univ California, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)Southampton University, Southampton, United Kingdom, (5)University of California Berkeley, Walnut CREEK, CA, United States, (6)University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States, (7)University of Delaware, Physics and Astronomy, Newark, DE, United States, (8)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (9)Univ Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (10)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (11)Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (UMR7648), CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique/UPMC/Univ. Paris Sud/Obs. de Paris, Paris, France, (12)KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, (13)University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (14)Univ California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (15)Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (16)University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (17)Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, Austria, (18)Austrian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute, Graz, Austria
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Earth’s magnetosheath is filled with complex, nonlinear fluctuations known as turbulence that generate a multitude of small-scale current sheets. A number of previous studies have shown that these current sheets are potential locations for magnetic reconnection and that in some cases the reconnection events may occur without forming ion jets – so-called electron-only magnetic reconnection. However, the general impact of the reconnection events within the turbulent plasma remains an open question. In this study, we perform a detailed survey of ~60 intervals of magnetosheath turbulence observed with high-resolution, multi-spacecraft measurements from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission across the subsolar region and into the flanks. Within each interval characteristic properties of the turbulence (e.g., correlation length, spectral shape) are determined and several hundred individual magnetic reconnection events are identified, including both reconnection events with and without ion jets. Evidence of magnetic reconnection is found in nearly all of the turbulent intervals examined, and the properties of the reconnection events are explored in the context of the turbulence properties of the intervals. A spectral break is found in the magnetic spectrum at ~4 electron inertial lengths (0.1 ion inertial lengths) consistent with the typical thickness of reconnecting current sheets and the relationship between this spectral feature and the current sheets is explored. The results demonstrate that magnetic reconnection may be a common feature in turbulent plasmas such as Earth’s magnetosheath and, by systematically characterising the properties of these reconnection events, provide crucial insight needed to determine the potential impact of reconnection on the nonlinear dynamics and turbulent dissipation.
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