Electron Scale Coherent Structure as Micro Accelerator in the Earth’s Magnetosheath
- 1Institute of Space Physics and Applied Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- 2State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau, China
- 3Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany
- 4Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
- 5Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment, Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China
- 6Denali Scientific, 3771 Mariposa Lane, Fairbanks, AK 99709, USA
- 7Heliophysics Science Division, NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- 8Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado LASP, Boulder, CO, USA
- 9Department of Space and Plasma Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Turbulent energy dissipation is a fundamental process in plasma physics that has not been settled. It is generally believed that the turbulent energy is dissipated at electron scales leading to electron energization in magnetized plasmas. Here, we propose a micro accelerator which could transform electrons from isotropic distribution to trapped, and then to stream (Strahl) distribution. From the MMS observations of an electron-scale coherent structure in the dayside magnetosheath, we identify an electron flux enhancement region in this structure collocated with an increase of magnetic field strength, which is also closely associated with a non-zero parallel electric field. We propose a trapping model considering a field-aligned electric potential together with the mirror force. The results are consistent with the observed electron fluxes from ~50 eV to ~200 eV. It further demonstrates that bidirectional electron jets can be formed by the hourglass-like magnetic configuration of the structure.
How to cite: Xie, Z., Zong, Q.-G., Yue, C., Zhou, X.-Z., Liu, Z.-Y., He, J.-S., Hao, Y.-X., Ng, C.-S., Zhang, H., Yao, S.-T., Pollock, C. J., Le, G., Ergun, R. E., and Lindqvist, P.-A.: Electron Scale Coherent Structure as Micro Accelerator in the Earth’s Magnetosheath, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-2677, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-2677, 2024.
