Small-scale Field-aligned Currents in the Magnetopause Boundary Layer

Abstract

Based on high-resolution measurements from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission from 2015 May to 2018 June, we statistically investigate the properties of small-scale field-aligned currents (SFACs) in the magnetopause boundary layer. A total of 2235 SFACs are successfully identified. The durations of SFACs mainly fall between 0.2 and 0.3 s. Over 90% of SFACs have a width of less than 1 ion inertia length and are primarily distributed from 5 to 25 electron inertia lengths, implying that the SFACs belong to the kinetic-scale current layer. The main carriers of SFACs are electrons, and over 70% of SFACs exhibit net energy dissipation (i.e., J · E ′ > 0) with the majority of energy dissipation taking place in the parallel direction. SFACs are widely distributed spatially, and the occurrence rate of SFACs is higher in the boundary layer closer to the magnetosphere. Additionally, less than half of the total SFACs are identified in well-known structures, including the magnetic reconnection region, flux transfer event, Kelvin–Helmholtz vortex, and exhaust region, and 54% of the SFACs are in the “others” unknown structures. These results improve our comprehension of the current system at the magnetopause and the roles of SFACs in the coupling between the solar wind and magnetosphere.

Keywords

• Planetary magnetospheres
• Solar wind
• Planetary boundary layers