Guo, R;
Pu, Z;
Chen, LJ;
Fu, S;
Xie, L;
Wang, X;
Dunlop, M;
... Fazakerley, AN; + view all
(2016)
In-situ observations of flux ropes formed in association with a pair of spiral nulls in magnetotail plasmas.
Physics of Plasmas
, 23
(5)
, Article 052901. 10.1063/1.4948415.
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Guo et al In-situ observations of flux ropes formed in association with a pair of spiral nulls in magnetotail plasmas AAM.pdf Download (42MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Signatures of secondary islands are frequently observed in the magnetic reconnection regions of magnetotail plasmas. In this paper, magnetic structures with the secondary-island signatures observed by Cluster are reassembled by a fitting-reconstruction method. The results show three-dimensionally that a secondary island event can manifest the flux rope formed with an As-type null and a Bs-type null paired via their spines. We call this As-spine-Bs-like configuration the helically wrapped spine model. The reconstructed field lines wrap around the spine to form the flux rope, and an O-type topology is therefore seen on the plane perpendicular to the spine. Magnetized electrons are found to rotate on and cross the fan surface, suggesting that both the torsional-spine and the spine-fan reconnection take place in the configuration. Furthermore, detailed analysis implies that the spiral nulls and flux ropes were locally generated nearby the spacecraft in the reconnection outflow region, indicating that secondary reconnection may occur in the exhaust away from the primary reconnection site.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | In-situ observations of flux ropes formed in association with a pair of spiral nulls in magnetotail plasmas |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1063/1.4948415 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4948415 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Published by AIP Publishing. The published article [Guo, R; Pu, Z; Chen, LJ; Fu, S; Xie, L; Wang, X; Dunlop, M; (2016) In-situ observations of flux ropes formed in association with a pair of spiral nulls in magnetotail plasmas. Physics of Plasmas , 23 (5) 10.1063/1.4948415] may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4948415. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1497982 |
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