| Issue |
EPL
Volume 85, Number 4, February 2009
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 49001 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Geophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/85/49001 | |
| Published online | 18 February 2009 | |
Auroral evidence for multiple reconnection in the magnetospheric tail plasma sheet
1
Department of Geophysics, Munich University - Theresienstr. 41, D-80333 Munich, Germany, EU
2
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College - Hanover, NH 03755, USA
3
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo University - Tokyo, Japan
4
CETP/CNRS - St.-Maur-des-Fossés Cedex, France, EU
Received:
1
November
2008
Accepted:
28
January
2009
We present auroral evidence for multiple and, most probably, small-scale reconnection in the near-Earth magnetospheric plasma sheet current layer during auroral activity. Hall currents as the source of upward and downward field-aligned currents require the generation of the corresponding electron fluxes. The auroral spatial ordering in a multiple sequence of these fluxes requires the assumption of the existence of several —and possibly— even many tailward reconnection sites.
PACS: 94.30.Aa – Auroral phenomena in magnetosphere / 94.30.cp – Magnetic reconnection / 94.20.wj – Wave/particle interactions
© EPLA, 2009
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