Reconnection observed at Earth's bow shock

ORAL

Abstract

We study magnetic reconnection at the Earth's bow shock using observations by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. The reconnecting current sheets exist both in the foreshock and in the deep shock transition region. The current sheets may contain the electron outflow jet, Hall fields and Hall currents, and show energy conversion between the fields and particles, while ions do not have response. There also exists reconnecting current sheets where the ion exhaust is observed with ion acceleration and heating. The compression of the current sheets originated from the foreshock waves appears to be one mechanism of generating thin current sheets subject to reconnection.

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Authors

  • Shan Wang

    University of Maryland, College Park, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Maryland

  • Li-Jen Chen

    Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, GSFC

  • Naoki Bessho

    University of Maryland at College Park

  • Michael Hesse

    University of Bergen

  • Lynn Wilson

    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, GSFC

  • Richard Denton

    Dartmouth College

  • Jonathan Ng

    University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland at College Park

  • Barbara Giles

    GSFC

  • Roy Torbert

    University of New Hampshire

  • James Burch

    Southwest Research Institute