Quasi-Steady Magnetotail Reconnection

研究人员将研究准稳态磁尾重联在磁层动力学中的作用。在重联过程中，当等离子体被引入到先前无人的场线上时，飞行时间效应可以产生独特的粒子特征。这种磁尾重联的迹象被视为低地球轨道国防气象卫星计划卫星获得的数据中的速度分散离子结构。这项研究有三个目标。第一个目标是了解是什么控制了磁尾中的准稳定重联。第二个目标是通过表征磁层-电离层与场向电流的关联来研究与速度分散离子结构相关的磁层-电离层耦合。第三个目标是确定磁尾中与突发体流的关联。这项研究将有助于更好地理解等离子体是如何进入磁层的，以及进入过程是如何在电离层特征中表现出来的。

The investigators will study the role played by quasi-steady magnetotail reconnection in magnetospheric dynamics. Time-of-flight effects can produce distinctive particle signatures during reconnection, when plasma is introduced onto previously unpopulated field lines. Such indications of reconnection in the magnetotail are seen as velocity dispersed ion structures in data obtained by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellites in low Earth orbit. There are three goals to the study. The first goal is to learn what controls quasi-steady reconnection in the magnetotail. The second goal is to examine the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling associated with velocity dispersed ion structures by characterizing their association with field-aligned currents. The third goal is to ascertain any correlation with bursty bulk flows in the magnetotail. The study will lead to a better understanding of how plasma enters the magnetosphere and how the entry process is manifested in ionospheric signatures.