On the Signatures of Reconnection-Related Magnetic Islands at the Earth's Magnetopause and in the Solar Wind: New Perspectives from Observations and Particle-In-Cell Simulations

Whether magnetic reconnection proceeds via a dominant single X line or to some extent via multiple competing X lines [e.g., Nishida, 1989] is a topic of great importance for our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the Earth's magnetopause current sheet and current sheets in the solar wind. A multiple X line scenario has been proposed as one of several mechanisms for the generation of magnetic flux ropes and "flux transfer events" at the magnetopause [e.g., Lee and Fu, 1985; Raeder, 2006; Hasegawa et al., 2010, 2015; Sibeck and Lin, 2011; Øieroset et al., 2011], while a patchy, single X line mechanism was proposed by Russell and Elphic [1978]. Here we present some new perspectives on the signatures of reconnection-related magnetic islands from particle-in-cell simulations and comparative observations at the Earth's magnetopause and from the solar wind.