SM020-0013
Reconnection Rates at the Dayside Magnetopause

Thursday, 10 December 2020
Poster
Kristina Renee Pritchard1, James L Burch2, Kevin James Genestreti2, Stephen A Fuselier3, James Webster2, Roy B Torbert4, Robert Ergun5, Barbara L Giles6 and Christopher T Russell7, (1)University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (3)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (4)Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (5)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (7)University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Abstract:
Using data acquired from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) on 28 November 2016 and 29 December 2016 when the average spacecraft separation was ~ 7 km, we derive the reconnection electric field and the normalized reconnection rate. The reconnection rates are comparable to theoretical prediction (0.1 – 0.15). We further use 7.5 ms phase space velocity distribution functions to visually show the aspect ratio of the inner electron diffusion region (EDR). The aspect ratio of ~2-3 is consistent with the prediction of Hesse based on the trapping time of electrons in a field reversal region.
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