HR: 1340h
AN: SM53B-0416    [Abstracts]
TI: Electron Dynamics in the Dissipation Region of Guide-Field Magnetic Reconnection
AU: Vollmer, T
EM: thomas.vollmer@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 696, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: * Hesse, M
EM: michael.hesse@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 696, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Kuznetsova, M M
EM: mkuznets@pop600.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 696, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Birn, J
EM: jbirn@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, NIS-1, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AB: In the case of a significant guide magnetic field in the reconnection region, electrons are magnetized unless gradient scale lengths become comparable to the local electron Larmor radius. In this situation, electron scattering by the reconnection magnetic field components can occur. We will demonstrate that electron scattering is necessary to avoid unphysical singularities in the electron flow velocity. Furthermore, we will trace particles in self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations to demonstrate the interaction between electron Larmor motion and the steep gradients of the reconnecting magnetic field. We will show that oblique heat-flux tensor components play a critical role in the electron dynamics near the stagnation point. Finally, we will present the results of analytical scaling arguments that show how and when the electron Larmor scale emerges as a natural scale for the inner, electron, diffusion region.
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection
DE: 7843 Numerical simulation studies
DE: 2724 Magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting