Direct Detection of Ongoing Magnetic Reconnection at Mercury's High-Latitude Magnetopause
- 1University of Science and Technology of China, Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, School of Earth and Space Sciences, hefei, China (rswan@ustc.edu.cn)
- 2Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan
- 3China-Brazil Joint Laboratory for Space Weather, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São Jose dos Campos, Brazil
An ongoing magnetic reconnection event was detected in the Mercury's high latitude magnetopause during a northward interplanetary magnetic field. The reconnection X-line region was revealed in the Mercury's magnetopause based on the encountered flux ropes ejected away from this region both planetward and tailward. A series of magnetic flux ropes, known as flux transfer event shower were observed tailward of this X-line region. These flux ropes were probably expanding and deflected as they were ejected away tailward from the X-line region. Large-amplitude variations in all three components of the magnetic field and a few small-scale flux ropes were observed inside the X-line region, which could be the seed of the flux rope shower at the magnetopause. The observations suggest that magnetic reconnection is highly dynamic and persistent in Mercury's magnetosphere.
How to cite: Wang, R., CHeng, Z., Slavin, J. A., Lu, Q., Raines, J., Lu, S., Guo, J., and Gonzalez, W.: Direct Detection of Ongoing Magnetic Reconnection at Mercury's High-Latitude Magnetopause, Europlanet Science Congress 2024, Berlin, Germany, 8–13 Sep 2024, EPSC2024-23, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2024-23, 2024.
