ORCID Profile
0000-0003-4040-9663
Current Organisations
Swedish Institute of Space Physics
,
Uppsala University
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Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 20-06-2016
DOI: 10.1002/2016GL069191
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 11-2017
DOI: 10.1002/2017JA024535
Abstract: In this paper we use the full armament of the MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale) spacecraft to study magnetic reconnection in the turbulent magnetosheath downstream of a quasi‐parallel bow shock. Contrarily to the magnetopause and magnetotail cases, only a few observations of reconnection in the magnetosheath have been reported. The case study in this paper presents, for the first time, both fluid‐scale and kinetic‐scale signatures of an ongoing reconnection in the turbulent magnetosheath. The spacecraft are crossing the reconnection inflow and outflow regions and the ion diffusion region (IDR). Inside the reconnection outflows D shape ion distributions are observed. Inside the IDR mixing of ion populations, crescent‐like velocity distributions and ion accelerations are observed. One of the spacecraft skims the outer region of the electron diffusion region, where parallel electric fields, energy dissipation/conversion, electron pressure tensor agyrotropy, electron temperature anisotropy, and electron accelerations are observed. Some of the difficulties of the observations of magnetic reconnection in turbulent plasma are also outlined.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 10-2016
DOI: 10.1002/2016JA023146
Abstract: Localized kinetic‐scale regions of strong current are believed to play an important role in plasma thermalization and particle acceleration in turbulent plasmas. We present a detailed study of a strong localized current, 4900 nA m −2 , located at a fast plasma jet observed in the magnetosheath downstream of a quasi‐parallel shock. The thickness of the current region is ∼3 ion inertial lengths and forms at a boundary separating magnetosheath‐like and solar wind‐like plasmas. On ion scales the current region has the shape of a sheet with a significant average normal magnetic field component but shows strong variations on smaller scales. The dynamic pressure within the magnetosheath jet is over 3 times the solar wind dynamic pressure. We suggest that the current sheet is forming due to high velocity shears associated with the jet. Inside the current sheet we observe local electron acceleration, producing electron beams, along the magnetic field. However, there is no clear sign of ongoing reconnection. At higher energies, above the beam energy, we observe a loss cone consistent with part of the hot magnetosheath‐like electrons escaping into the colder solar wind‐like plasma. This suggests that the acceleration process within the current sheet is similar to the one that occurs at shocks, where electron beams and loss cones are also observed. Therefore, electron beams observed in the magnetosheath do not have to originate from the bow shock but can also be generated locally inside the magnetosheath.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 11-2018
DOI: 10.1029/2018JA025676
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 06-06-2016
DOI: 10.1002/2016GL069064
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 28-08-2018
DOI: 10.1029/2018GL078660
No related grants have been discovered for Elin Eriksson.