Reconnection at high latitudes: antiparallel merging

New investigations have renewed the debate on the occurrence of magnetic reconnection of Earth's dayside magnetopause. Here, we show for the first time strong evidence for a high-latitude reconnection site, located on initially closed field lines, where the magnetic field orientations inside an...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2009-02, Vol.102 (7), p.075005-075005, Article 075005
Main Authors: Dunlop, M W, Zhang, Q-H, Xiao, C-J, He, J-S, Pu, Z, Fear, R C, Shen, C, Escoubet, C P
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:New investigations have renewed the debate on the occurrence of magnetic reconnection of Earth's dayside magnetopause. Here, we show for the first time strong evidence for a high-latitude reconnection site, located on initially closed field lines, where the magnetic field orientations inside and outside the magnetopause are close to antiparallel. The evidence centers on repeated sampling of the ion diffusion region and associated null magnetic field by four spacecraft in formation, together with simultaneous monitoring of the local magnetosheath behavior by a fifth spacecraft.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.102.075005