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Volume 53 Supplement 6

Special Issue: Magnetic Reconnection in Space and Laboratory Plasmas

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Magnetotail reconnection: Simulation predictions on magnetic time series

Abstract

In a recent kinetic computer simulation (Arzner and Scholer, 2001), magnetotail reconnection was studied with emphasis on the kinetic (particle) aspect. Complementary, we focus in the present paper on the magnetic fields. Examples of time series of the magnetic field at a fixed position, as predicted for spacecraft probes, are given. Different spatial regions are classified according to their signatures in these time series, and criteria for the proximity to the reconnection point, the post-plasmoid plasma sheet (PPPS) and the boundary layer are derived. The kinetic simulation reveals an instability of the PPPS, which is discussed in terms of an anisotropic 3-layer fluid model with the free energy is provided by the velocity anisotropy (T > T) due to the simultaneous presence of inflowing lobe ions and outflowing ions deflected in the field reversal. In its nonlinear stage, this instability creates higher harmonics and finally leads to turbulence characterized by power law spatial and temporal spectra. The latter allow a direct comparison with GEOTAIL and AMPTE observations. It is found that the simulated and observed turbulence spectra agree well.

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Arzner, K., Scholer, M. Magnetotail reconnection: Simulation predictions on magnetic time series. Earth Planet Sp 53, 655–661 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353285

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353285

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