| Issue |
EPL
Volume 85, Number 4, February 2009
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 49003 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Geophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/85/49003 | |
| Published online | 09 March 2009 | |
Whistler regime reconnection rates
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and CSPAR, University of Alabama - Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
Corresponding author: singh@ece.uah.edu
Received:
9
December
2008
Accepted:
3
February
2009
Based on whistler mode group velocity cones radiated by electromagnetic perturbations (EMPs) in the diffusion region, we predict the magnetic reconnection rates R as a function of the half-width w of the current sheet in the diffusion region. Since an EMP in the diffusion region has a finite width transverse to the ambient magnetic field, its perpendicular wave number (
) spectrum also has a finite width. We first give the rates (R) for monochromatic (discrete) values of 
proportional to w-1. Such rates are used to determine the rates averaged over the wave-number spectrum of a Gaussian-shaped EMP. We compare the predictions on R with results from numerical simulations and satellite observations, showing remarkable agreement.
PACS: 94.30.cp – Magnetic reconnection / 94.30.cl – Magnetotail / 94.30.ch – Magnetopause
© EPLA, 2009
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.