On the electron agyrotropy during rapid asymmetric magnetic island coalescence in presence of a guide field

We present an analysis of the properties of the electron velocity distribution during island coalescence in asymmetric reconnection with and without guide field. In a previous study, three main domains were identified, in the case without guide field, as X, D, and M regions featuring different recon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2016-08, Vol.43 (15), p.7840-7849
Main Authors: Cazzola, E., Innocenti, M. E., Goldman, M. V., Newman, D. L., Markidis, S., Lapenta, G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Analysis
Anisotropy
Astrophysics
Asymmetric magnetic island coalescence with and without guide field
Asymmetry
Coalescence
Coalescing
Detection
Distribution
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Electron anisotropy and agyrotropy in asymmetric magnetic reconnection
Electron velocity distribution
Evolution
Fully kinetic simulation of asymmetric magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause
Identification
Islands
Kinetics
Light
M region
Magnetic fields
Magnetic islands
Magnetospheres
Multiscale analysis
Physics
Plasma Physics
Properties
Regions
Robustness
Skewed distributions
Velocity
Velocity distribution
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Summary:We present an analysis of the properties of the electron velocity distribution during island coalescence in asymmetric reconnection with and without guide field. In a previous study, three main domains were identified, in the case without guide field, as X, D, and M regions featuring different reconnection evolutions. These regions are also identified here in the case with guide field. We study the departure from isotropic and gyrotropic behavior by means of different robust detection algorithms proposed in the literature. While in the case without guide field these metrics show an overall agreement, when the guide field is present, a discrepancy in the agyrotropy within some relevant regions is observed, such as at the separatrices and inside magnetic islands. Moreover, in light of the new observations from the Multiscale MagnetoSpheric mission, an analysis of the electron velocity phase‐space in these domains is presented. Key Points Asymmetric magnetic island coalescence with and without guide field Electron anisotropy and agyrotropy in asymmetric magnetic reconnection Fully kinetic simulation of asymmetric magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
1944-8007
DOI:10.1002/2016GL070195