Turbulence in Magnetic Reconnection Jets from Injection to Sub-Ion Scales.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- Richard L; Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 751 21, Sweden and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Space and Plasma Physics, Uppsala University, Uppsala 751 20, Sweden.; Sorriso-Valvo L; CNR/ISTP-Istituto per la Scienza e la Tecnologia dei Plasmi, 70126 Bari, Italy; Space and Plasma Physics, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm 114 28, Sweden; and Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 751 21, Sweden.; Yordanova E; Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 751 21, Sweden.; Graham DB; Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 751 21, Sweden.; Khotyaintsev YV; Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala 751 21, Sweden.
- Source
- Publisher: American Physical Society Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0401141 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1079-7114 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00319007 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Phys Rev Lett Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE; MEDLINE
- Subject
- Language
- English
We investigate turbulence in magnetic reconnection jets in the Earth's magnetotail using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. We show that signatures of a limited inertial range are observed in many reconnection jets. The observed turbulence develops on the timescale of a few ion gyroperiods, resulting in intermittent multifractal energy cascade from the characteristic scale of the jet down to the ion scales. We show that at sub-ion scales, the fluctuations are close to monofractal and predominantly kinetic Alfvén waves. The observed energy transfer rate across the inertial range is ∼10^{8} J kg^{-1} s^{-1}, which is the largest reported for space plasmas so far.