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Extended Magnetic Reconnection Across the Dayside Magnetopause

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  • M. W. Dunlop
  • Q.-H. Zhang
  • Y. V. Bogdanova
  • M. Lockwood
  • H. Hasegawa
  • J. Wang
  • M. G. G. T. Taylor
  • J. Berchem
  • B. Lavraud
  • J.P. Eastwood
  • M. Volwerk
  • C. Shen
  • J.-K. Shi
  • D. Constantinescu
  • H. Frey
  • A. N. Fazakerley
  • D.G. Sibeck
  • P. Escoubet
  • James Wild
  • Z.-X. Liu
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Article number025004
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>11/07/2011
<mark>Journal</mark>Physical review letters
Issue number2
Volume107
Number of pages6
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

The extent of where magnetic reconnection (MR), the dominant process responsible for energy and plasma transport into the magnetosphere, operates across Earth’s dayside magnetopause has previously been only indirectly shown by observations. We report the first direct evidence of X-line structure resulting from the operation of MR at each of two widely separated locations along the tilted, subsolar line of maximum current on Earth’s magnetopause, confirming the operation of MR at two or more sites across the extended region where MR is expected to occur. The evidence results from in-situ observations of the associated ion and electron plasma distributions, present within each magnetic X-line structure, taken by two spacecraft passing through the active MR regions simultaneously.

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© 2011 American Physical Society