Statistical properties of kinetic-scale magnetic holes in terrestrial space

Kinetic-scale magnetic holes(KSMHs)are structures characterized by a significant magnetic depression with a length scale on the order of the proton gyroradius.These structures have been investigated in recent studies in near-Earth space,and found to be closely related to energy conversion and particle acceleration,wave-particle interactions,magnetic reconnection,and turbulence at the kineticscale.However,there are still several major issues of the KSMHs that need further study—including(a)the source of these structures(locally generated in near-Earth space,or carried by the solar wind),(b)the environmental conditions leading to their generation,and(c)their spatio-temporal characteristics.In this study,KSMHs in near-Earth space are investigated statistically using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission.Approximately 200,000 events were observed from September 2015 to March 2020.Occurrence rates of such structures in the solar wind,magnetosheath,and magnetotail were obtained.We find that KSMHs occur in the magnetosheath at rates far above their occurrence in the solar wind.This indicates that most of the structures are generated locally in the magnetosheath,rather than advected with the solar wind.Moreover,KSMHs occur in the downstream region of the quasi-parallel shock at rates significantly higher than in the downstream region of the quasi-perpendicular shock,indicating a relationship with the turbulent plasma environment.Close to the magnetopause,we find that the depths of KSMHs decrease as their temporal-scale increases.We also find that the spatial-scales of the KSMHs near the subsolar magnetosheath are smaller than those in the flanks.Furthermore,their global distribution shows a significant dawn-dusk asymmetry(duskside dominating)in the magnetotail.

Collisionless magnetic reconnection in the magnetosphere

Magnetic reconnection underlies the physical mechanism of explosive phenomena in the solar atmosphere and planetary magnetospheres, where plasma is usually collisionless. In the standard model of collisionless magnetic reconnection,the diffusion region consists of two substructures: an electron diffusion region is embedded in an ion diffusion region,in which their scales are based on the electron and ion inertial lengths. In the ion diffusion region, ions are unfrozen in the magnetic fields while electrons are magnetized. The resulted Hall effect from the different motions between ions and electrons leads to the production of the in-plane currents, and then generates the quadrupolar structure of out-of-plane magnetic field. In the electron diffusion region, even electrons become unfrozen in the magnetic fields, and the reconnection electric field is contributed by the off-diagonal electron pressure terms in the generalized Ohm’s law. The reconnection rate is insensitive to the specific mechanism to break the frozen-in condition, and is on the order of 0.1. In recent years, the launching of Cluster, THEMIS, MMS, and other spacecraft has provided us opportunities to study collisionless magnetic reconnection in the Earth’s magnetosphere, and to verify and extend more insights on the standard model of collisionless magnetic reconnection. In this paper, we will review what we have learned beyond the standard model with the help of observations from these spacecraft as well as kinetic simulations.

Observation of directional change of core field inside flux ropes within one reconnection diffusion region in the Earth's magnetotail

Two consecutive magnetic flux ropes, separated by less than 30 s(Dt \ 30 s), are observed within one magnetic reconnection diffusion region without strong guide field in the Earth's magnetotail by Cluster multispacecraft. The flux ropes are characterized by bipolar signatures of the south–north magnetic field component Bz accompanied with strong core magnetic field By, intense current J and density depletions inside of them. In spite of the small but non-trivial global scale negative guide field(–By), there exists a directional change of the core fields of two flux ropes, i.e.,-Byfor the first one, and Byfor the second one. The directions of the core fields are the same as the ambient cross-tail magnetic field component(By) just outside of flux ropes. Therefore, we suggest that the core field of flux ropes is formed by compression of the local preexisting Byand that the directional change of core field is due to the change of local preexisting By. Such a change in ambient Bymight be caused by some microscale physics.

Magnetotail dipolarization fronts and particle acceleration:A review

In this paper, the particle acceleration processes around magnetotail dipolarization fronts(DFs) were reviewed. We summarize the spacecraft observations(including Cluster, THEMIS, MMS) and numerical simulations(including MHD, testparticle, hybrid, LSK, PIC) of these processes. Specifically, we(1) introduce the properties of DFs at MHD scale, ion scale, and electron scale,(2) review the properties of suprathermal electrons with particular focus on the pitch-angle distributions,(3)define the particle-acceleration process and distinguish it from the particle-heating process,(4) identify the particle-acceleration process from spacecraft measurements of energy fluxes, and(5) quantify the acceleration efficiency and compare it with other processes in the magnetosphere(e.g., magnetic reconnection and radiation-belt acceleration processes). We focus on both the acceleration of electrons and ions(including light ions and heavy ions). Regarding electron acceleration, we introduce Fermi,betatron, and non-adiabatic acceleration mechanisms;regarding ion acceleration, we present Fermi, betatron, reflection, resonance, and non-adiabatic acceleration mechanisms. We also discuss the unsolved problems and open questions relevant to this topic, and suggest directions for future studies.