Mistry R, Eastwood JP, Haggerty CC, Shay MA, Phan TD, Hietala H, Cassak PA. Observations of Hall Reconnection Physics Far Downstream of the X Line.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2016;
117:185102. [PMID:
27835012 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.117.185102]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Observations made using the Wind spacecraft of Hall magnetic fields in solar wind reconnection exhausts are presented. These observations are consistent with the generation of Hall fields by a narrow ion inertial scale current layer near the separatrix, which is confirmed with an appropriately scaled particle-in-cell simulation that shows excellent agreement with observations. The Hall fields are observed thousands of ion inertial lengths downstream from the reconnection X line, indicating that narrow regions of kinetic dynamics can persist extremely far downstream.
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