Local time extent of magnetopause reconnection using space–ground coordination
2018
Abstract. Magnetic reconnection can vary considerably in spatial
extent. At the Earth's magnetopause, the extent generally corresponds to the
extent in local time. The extent has been probed by multiple spacecraft
crossing the magnetopause, but the estimates have large uncertainties because
of the assumption of spatially continuous reconnection activity between
spacecraft and the lack of information beyond areas of spacecraft coverage.
The limitations can be overcome by using radars examining ionospheric flows
moving anti-sunward across the open–closed field line boundary. We therefore
infer the extents of reconnection using coordinated observations of multiple
spacecraft and radars for three conjunction events. We find that when
reconnection jets occur at only one spacecraft, only the ionosphere conjugate
to this spacecraft shows a channel of fast anti-sunward flow. When
reconnection jets occur at two spacecraft and the spacecraft are separated by
1 Re, the ionosphere conjugate to both spacecraft shows a
channel of fast anti-sunward flow. The consistency allows us to determine the
reconnection jet extent by measuring the ionospheric flows. The
full-width-at-half-maximum flow extent is 200, 432, and 1320 km,
corresponding to a reconnection jet extent of 2, 4, and 11 Re. Considering
that reconnection jets emanate from reconnections with a high reconnection
rate, the result indicates that both spatially patchy (a few Re) and
spatially continuous and extended reconnections ( > 10 Re) are
possible forms of active reconnection at the magnetopause. Interestingly, the
extended reconnection develops from a localized patch via spreading across
local time. Potential effects of IMF B x and B y on the reconnection
extent are discussed.
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