Energy Partition in Magnetic Reconnection in Earth's Magnetotail

Energy Partition in Magnetic Reconnection in Earth’s Magnetotail

J. P. Eastwood, T. D. Phan, J. F. Drake, M. A. Shay, A. L. Borg, B. Lavraud, and M. G. G. T. Taylor

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 225001 – Published 31 May 2013

Abstract

The partition of energy flux in magnetic reconnection is examined experimentally using Cluster satellite observations of collisionless reconnection in Earth’s magnetotail. In this plasma regime, the dominant component of the energy flux is ion enthalpy flux, with smaller contributions from the electron enthalpy and heat flux and the ion kinetic energy flux. However, the Poynting flux is not negligible, and in certain parts of the ion diffusion region the Poynting flux in fact dominates. Evidence for earthward-tailward asymmetry is ascribed to the presence of Earth’s dipole fields.

Received 15 October 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.225001

Authors & Affiliations

J. P. Eastwood^1,*, T. D. Phan², J. F. Drake³, M. A. Shay⁴, A. L. Borg⁵, B. Lavraud^6,7, and M. G. G. T. Taylor⁸

¹The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
²Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
³Department of Physics, Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-3511, USA
⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA
⁵Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Instituttvn 20, NO-2007 Kjeller, Norway
⁶Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Université de Toulouse (UPS), 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
⁷Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5277 Toulouse, France
⁸ESA/ESTEC, 2200 AG Noordwijk, Netherlands