Intermittent Electron-Only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-Magnetospheres
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arXiv
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| Hauptverfasser: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| _version_ | 1866914664611315712 |
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| author | Stanier, Adam Chen, Li-Jen Le, Ari Halekas, Jasper Sawyer, Rhyan |
| author_facet | Stanier, Adam Chen, Li-Jen Le, Ari Halekas, Jasper Sawyer, Rhyan |
| contents | Lunar crustal magnetic anomalies (LCMA) are sub-ion-gyroradius structures that have been shown to stand off the solar wind (SW) plasma from the Moon's surface, forming shock-like discontinuities and reflecting incident SW protons. In this letter, the results of high-resolution, two-dimensional fully kinetic simulations show a bursty electron-only magnetic reconnection in the SW-LCMA interaction region, characterized by the quasi-periodic formation and ejection of magnetic islands and strong parallel electron flows along the X-point separator lines. The islands are observed to modify the magnetic pressure pile-up and Hall electric field above the LCMA, leading to sharp increases in reflected protons that drive electromagnetic fluctuations downstream and short distances upstream in the SW. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_01859 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Intermittent Electron-Only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-Magnetospheres Stanier, Adam Chen, Li-Jen Le, Ari Halekas, Jasper Sawyer, Rhyan Space Physics Plasma Physics Lunar crustal magnetic anomalies (LCMA) are sub-ion-gyroradius structures that have been shown to stand off the solar wind (SW) plasma from the Moon's surface, forming shock-like discontinuities and reflecting incident SW protons. In this letter, the results of high-resolution, two-dimensional fully kinetic simulations show a bursty electron-only magnetic reconnection in the SW-LCMA interaction region, characterized by the quasi-periodic formation and ejection of magnetic islands and strong parallel electron flows along the X-point separator lines. The islands are observed to modify the magnetic pressure pile-up and Hall electric field above the LCMA, leading to sharp increases in reflected protons that drive electromagnetic fluctuations downstream and short distances upstream in the SW. |
| title | Intermittent Electron-Only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-Magnetospheres |
| topic | Space Physics Plasma Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01859 |