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Statistics of reconnecting current sheets in the transition region of Earth's bow shock

Statistics of reconnecting current sheets in the transition region of Earth's bow shock
Statistics of reconnecting current sheets in the transition region of Earth's bow shock
We have conducted a comprehensive survey of burst mode observations of Earth's bow shock by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission to identify and characterize current sheets associated withcollisionless shocks, with a focus on those containing fast electron outflows, a likely signature of magnetic reconnection. The survey demonstrates that these thin current sheets are observed within the transition region of approximately 40% of shocks within the burst mode data set of Magnetospheric Multiscale. With only small apparent bias toward quasi-parallel shock orientations and high Alfvén Mach numbers, the results suggest that reconnection at shocks is a universal process, occurring across all shock orientations and Mach numbers. On examining the distributions of current sheet properties, we find no correlation between distance from the shock, sheet width, or electron jet speed, though the relationship between electron and ion jet speed supports expectations of electron-only reconnection in the region. Furthermore, we find that robust heating statistics are not separable from background fluctuations, and thus, the primary consequence of reconnection at shocks is in relaxing the topology of the disordered magnetic field in the transition region.
2169-9402
1-14
Gingell, Imogen
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Schwartz, Steven
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Eastwood, Jonathan
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Stawarz, Julia
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Burch, James
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Ergun, Robert
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Fuselier, Stephen
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Gershman, Daniel
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Giles, Barbara
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Khotyaintsev, Yuri
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Lavraud, Benoit
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Lundqvist, Per-Arne
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Paterson, William
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Phan, Tai
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Russell, Christopher
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Strangeway, Robert
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Torbert, Roy
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Wilder, Fredrick
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Gingell, Imogen
ba7b8113-3833-40d8-a879-aab3f987455d
Schwartz, Steven
3eddffe7-82d4-4c89-a4b4-b8e460e95d80
Eastwood, Jonathan
db919184-a55a-4832-a814-3cbda685345b
Stawarz, Julia
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Burch, James
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Ergun, Robert
a1057c29-5201-4c8e-8b3a-508357121cb6
Fuselier, Stephen
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Gershman, Daniel
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Giles, Barbara
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Khotyaintsev, Yuri
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Lavraud, Benoit
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Lundqvist, Per-Arne
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Paterson, William
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Phan, Tai
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Russell, Christopher
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Strangeway, Robert
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Torbert, Roy
4a9e3458-be8a-407d-a7ae-da23c17b6c6e
Wilder, Fredrick
801a04bb-33ca-48e4-8a38-ea7d2963135c

Gingell, Imogen, Schwartz, Steven, Eastwood, Jonathan, Stawarz, Julia, Burch, James, Ergun, Robert, Fuselier, Stephen, Gershman, Daniel, Giles, Barbara, Khotyaintsev, Yuri, Lavraud, Benoit, Lundqvist, Per-Arne, Paterson, William, Phan, Tai, Russell, Christopher, Strangeway, Robert, Torbert, Roy and Wilder, Fredrick (2020) Statistics of reconnecting current sheets in the transition region of Earth's bow shock. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 125 (1), 1-14, [e2019JA027119]. (doi:10.1029/2019JA027119).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We have conducted a comprehensive survey of burst mode observations of Earth's bow shock by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission to identify and characterize current sheets associated withcollisionless shocks, with a focus on those containing fast electron outflows, a likely signature of magnetic reconnection. The survey demonstrates that these thin current sheets are observed within the transition region of approximately 40% of shocks within the burst mode data set of Magnetospheric Multiscale. With only small apparent bias toward quasi-parallel shock orientations and high Alfvén Mach numbers, the results suggest that reconnection at shocks is a universal process, occurring across all shock orientations and Mach numbers. On examining the distributions of current sheet properties, we find no correlation between distance from the shock, sheet width, or electron jet speed, though the relationship between electron and ion jet speed supports expectations of electron-only reconnection in the region. Furthermore, we find that robust heating statistics are not separable from background fluctuations, and thus, the primary consequence of reconnection at shocks is in relaxing the topology of the disordered magnetic field in the transition region.

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Accepted/In Press date: 24 November 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 December 2019
Published date: January 2020
Additional Information: Funding Information: This work was supported by the U.K. Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Grant ST/N000692/1. Data used in this research is publicly available at the MMS Science Data Center at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) hosted by the University of Colorado, Boulder (https://lasp.colorado.edu/mms/sdc/public/). I.?G. was in part supported by the Royal Society University Research Fellowship URF\R1\191547. Part of S.?J.?S.'s contributions are based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant MAG18_2-0071 issued through the HSR Program. Work at LASP was funded by the NASA MMS project, and work at IRAP was supported by CNRS and CNES. We also acknowledge the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) International Teams program for providing collaborative opportunity for this work. Publisher Copyright: ©2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 437258
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/437258
ISSN: 2169-9402
PURE UUID: 6bbc9e08-240b-48b5-bec8-8723bba75158
ORCID for Imogen Gingell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2218-1909

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Date deposited: 22 Jan 2020 17:33
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:15

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Contributors

Author: Imogen Gingell ORCID iD
Author: Steven Schwartz
Author: Jonathan Eastwood
Author: Julia Stawarz
Author: James Burch
Author: Robert Ergun
Author: Stephen Fuselier
Author: Daniel Gershman
Author: Barbara Giles
Author: Yuri Khotyaintsev
Author: Benoit Lavraud
Author: Per-Arne Lundqvist
Author: William Paterson
Author: Tai Phan
Author: Christopher Russell
Author: Robert Strangeway
Author: Roy Torbert
Author: Fredrick Wilder

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