Kinetic structure of reconnection jets in the geomagneotail
Abstract
The three-dimensional kinetic structure of reconnection jets in the magnetotail is investigated by hybrid simulations (ions as particles and electrons as massless charge neutralizing fluid). After magnetic reconnection is initiated by an anomalous resistivity which is localized in the SunEarth direction but uniform in the cross-tail direction in a one-dimensional Harris equilibrium plasma sheet, reconnection jets are accelerated and collide with the pre-existing plasma sheet. At the interface between the reconnection jets and the pre-existing plasma sheet, the reconnected magnetic fields are piled up and the plasma density is enhanced by compression. The interface is unstable to an interchange instability and forms wavy perturbations. In the non-linear growth phase of the instability, the wavy perturbations grow into magnetic bubbles on which the reconnected field lines converge from the lobe region. These magnetic bubbles move away faster than the other parts of the interface. It is suggested that the interchange instability generates localized plasma flows, magnetic flux, and energy transportations such as bursty bulk flows in the geomagnetotail.
- Publication:
-
Space Plasma Simulation
- Pub Date:
- 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001sps..proc..303N