HR: 15:47h
AN: SM53C-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Cluster observation of magnetic islands and energetic electrons
AU: * Chen, L
EM: lijen.chen@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Morse Hall, UNH, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Bhattacharjee, A
EM: amitava.bhattacharjee@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Morse Hall, UNH, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Puhl-Quinn, P A
EM: pamela.puhlquinn@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Morse Hall, UNH, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Yang, H
EM: hongang.yang@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Morse Hall, UNH, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Bessho, N
EM: naoki.bessho@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Morse Hall, UNH, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Imada, S
EM: shinsuke.imada@nao.ac.jp
AF: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Solar-B Project Office, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
AU: Muehlbachler, S
EM: muehlbachler@mps.mpg.de
AF: MPI, Lindau, Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research, Lindau, Germany
AU: Daly, P
EM: daly@mps.mpg.de
AF: MPI, Lindau, Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research, Lindau, Germany
AU: Lefebvre, B
EM: b.lefebvre@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College, Space and Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
AU: Fazakerley, A
EM: anf@mssl.ucl.ac.uk
AF: Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, London, United Kingdom
AU: Georgescu, E
EM: eg@mpe.mpg.de
AF: MPI, Garching, Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany
AU: Mouikis, C
EM: Chris.Mouikis@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center, Morse Hall, UNH, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AB: Magnetic reconnection is widely accepted to be a mechanism for electron acceleration, but exactly how electrons are accelerated during reconnection remains a long-standing question. A series of magnetic islands is observed in the magnetotail current sheet during active reconnection by multiple spacecraft. Electrons are hot within islands. The islands move away from the main reconnection sites with a velocity ~ 500 km/s based on multi-spacecraft timing analysis. The electric current distribution within an island varies significantly over a fraction of an ion inertial length in the out-of-plane direction, necessitating a 3D description. Associated with each island, is a burst of energetic electrons with energies ~35 to 120 keV. High time-resolution data reveal that energetic electron fluxes peak at sites of compressed density within magnetic islands. Within the islands, the density of O+ is higher than that of H+. The O+ ions are unmagnetized, and their density exhibits similar compression as the electron density, indicating that the density compression is not due to magnetic trapping by contracting islands, but most likely, due to the continuous injection of the ion and electron jets from the two reconnection sites bounding an island. The observation establishes a link between energetic electrons and magnetic islands, and provides supporting evidence for multiple reconnection sites.
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 7526 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7835)
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7526)
DE: 7845 Particle acceleration
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly