Cross-scale Dynamics Driven by Plasma Jet Braking in Space Show others and affiliations
2022 (English) In: Astrophysical Journal, ISSN 0004-637X, E-ISSN 1538-4357, Vol. 926, no 2, article id 198Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Plasma jets are ubiquitous in space. In geospace, jets can be generated by magnetic reconnection. These reconnection jets, typically at fluid scale, brake in the near-Earth region, dissipate their energies, and drive plasma dynamics at kinetic scales, generating field-aligned currents that are crucial to magnetospheric dynamics. Understanding of the cross-scale dynamics is fundamentally important, but observation of coupling among phenomena at various scales is highly challenging. Here we report, using unprecedentedly high-cadence data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, the first observation of cross-scale dynamics driven by jet braking in geospace. We find that jet braking causes MHD-scale distortion of magnetic field lines and development of an ion-scale jet front that hosts strong Hall electric fields. Parallel electric fields arising from the ion-scale Hall potential generate intense electron-scale field-aligned currents, which drive strong Debye-scale turbulence. Debye-scale waves conversely limit intensity of the field-aligned currents, thereby coupling back to the large-scale dynamics. Our study can help in understanding how energy deposited in large-scale structures is transferred into small-scale structures in space.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages American Astronomical Society , 2022. Vol. 926, no 2, article id 198
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-309797 DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac4979 ISI: 000760513900001 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85126533356 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-309797 DiVA, id: diva2:1644686
Note QC 20220315
2022-03-152022-03-152022-06-25 Bibliographically approved