Turbulent impulsive magnetic energy release from electron scale reconnection

Magnetic reconnection may occur as bursts of nonlinear plasma dynamics on the electron collisionless skin length scale de=c / pe, during which a large fraction of the magnetic energy is converted to plasma thermal energy and plasma flow energy. An example of such a bursty energy release event is given with a simple set of electron Hall equations. The energization mechanism is the cross-field compression of the electron gas between interacting magnetic islands. The electron energization appears to be consistent with the rapid electron energy flux changes measured by the Cluster spacecraft crossing thin current sheets at −17 RE in the geotail. The analysis is relevant to planned spacecraft missions for measuring electron scale magnetic reconnection events in the geomagnetic tail. © 2007 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2424555