Speaker
Prof.
Mats André
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala)
Description
We use statistics from the Cluster spacecraft and show that low-energy ions with
energies less than tens of eV originating from the ionosphere are common just inside
the magnetopause. During magnetopause magnetic reconnection events, these low-
energy ions remain magnetized down to smaller length-scales than the hot (keV)
magnetospheric ions, introducing a new scale. When magnetized low-energy ions are
present, the Hall currents carried by electrons can be partially cancelled by these ions.
The electrons and the magnetized low-energy ions EB drift together. We investigate
MMS and Cluster spacecraft observations in magnetic reconnection separatrices at
various magnetopause locations. We verify that when a mixture of ions of very
different temperatures is present in reconnecting plasmas, the microphysics related to
the Hall effect is significantly modified.
Primary author
Prof.
Mats André
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala)
