Cluster observations near reconnection X lines in Earth's magnetotail current sheet

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection is an efficient way to convert magnetic energy into particle energy. In this paper, we use Cluster thermal electron and ion measurements in the vicinity of a reconnection X line to delineate the structure of the reconnection current sheet. Multispacecraft observations made by Cluster on 18 August 2002 indicate that an X line drifted close to the spacecraft, about 3.4 RE earthward of the position where another X line had been observed earlier. Comparison of the Hall magnetic and electric field geometry and the observed properties of energetic electron beams streaming along the separatrix between the Cluster spacecraft indicates that the second X line formed within 20 s of the observation of the first X line. Repeated flow reversals and Hall field geometry together with the presence of a magnetic island embedded in the outflow region downstream of the first X line suggest that the initial current sheet was unstable, perhaps to the tearing mode. We identify a region with a thickness of 0.72 ion inertial lengths (29 electron inertial lengths, de) of super‐Alfvénic electron outflow (greater than the ion in‐flow Alfvén speed) during the period when the spacecraft was in the vicinity of the neutral sheet. Slightly below the neutral sheet, Cluster observed asymmetric counter‐streaming electrons with a loss of axisymmetry in the electron (V⟂1,V⟂2) distribution functions over a thin boundary with a thickness of several de. This electron‐scale transition layer was embedded in a much wider region where both the ion and electron Walén tests failed, and the electron super‐Alfvénic bulk outflow jets with high‐energy electron beams were detected. Those phenomena provide details of the substructure of the reconnection current sheet and suggest that the spacecraft traversed or skimmed the tailward edge of an elongated electron current layer. We also note that this event differs from a previously reported reconnection event in that strong electron temperature anisotropy (T∥>T⟂) is observed both in the inflow region and in the exhaust, where the anisotropy appears to be associated with the elongated electron outflow jets.