HR: 09:35h
AN: SM11B-06 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Microphysics of Terrestrial Reconnection: Principles and Observations
AU: * Mozer, F S
EM: fmozer@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory and Physics Department, University Of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
AB: The minimum requirement on sub-solar magnetospheric reconnection is the topological change that it produces. Energy input to the magnetosphere by the reconnection process may occur but it is not required because adequate energy to drive magnetospheric processes is provided by the Poynting flux through the tail that results from this topological change. The microphysics of reconnection is considered in terms of the ion scale of about 200 km at the sub-solar region and the electron scale of about 5 km. On the ion scale, the electric and magnetic fields required by the reconnection geometry accelerate ions to the order of the Alfven speed without the ions passing through the reconnection region itself. Examples of these fields and ion acceleration are presented. On the electron scale, it is shown that a parallel electric field is required in an electron diffusion region for reconnection to occur. Examples of such fields and electron acceleration at locations far from the classical x-line are presented.
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 7526 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7835)
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7526)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005