Flux Transfer Event With an Electron‐Scale Substructure Observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

Abstract

AbstractOn 12 November 2015 the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft traversed the magnetopause from the magnetosphere to the magnetosheath encountering evidence of magnetic reconnection and a tiny flux transfer event (FTE) on the magnetosheath side of the magnetopause boundary layer. The FTE exhibited a large negative‐positive bipolar variation in the normal magnetic field component (BN), an enhanced (negative) north‐south component direction (BL), and a variation in the third component BM resembling a “W” shape with negative values close to the edges and positive values near the center. Using the tetrahedron formation, we estimate that the FTE moved southward and duskward with a speed of VFTE = 324 km/s. The FTE size in the transverse direction is 518 km, which corresponds to 4.42 ion gyroradii. We identify an internal layer where the electron bulk flow velocity exhibits different behaviors at each of the four spacecraft and the current density was more intense at two spacecraft. Within the FTE's core region, the ion bulk flow behavior was similar for all four spacecraft. Using the velocity obtained from timing analysis, we estimate a dimension of this core region to be 181.4 km, which corresponds to 1.5 ion gyroradii. It is evident that the internal region is not large enough to affect the ion behavior but can do so for electrons. We conclude that the FTE's core is an electron‐scale substructure.