The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)

The Colocation of Magnetic Reconnection and Current Disruption in Jovian Middle Magnetosphere

  • Dong-Xiao Pan,
  • Zhong-Hua Yao,
  • Rui-Long Guo,
  • Christopher S. Arridge,
  • Licia C. Ray,
  • Yong Zhao,
  • George Clark,
  • I. Jonathan Rae,
  • Anthony T. Y. Lui,
  • Bin-Zheng Zhang,
  • Yong Wei,
  • Xu-Zhi Zhou,
  • Hui-Shan Fu,
  • John E. P. Connerney,
  • Scott J. Bolton

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad5962
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 969, no. 2
p. L35

Abstract

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Magnetic reconnection and current disruption are two key processes in driving energy conversion and dissipation in planetary magnetospheres. At the Earth, the two processes usually occur at different locations: the current disruption process occurs more frequently in the near-Earth magnetotail ∼10 R _E , while the magnetotail reconnection process is expected to take place in the more distant region where the current sheet is thinner. Occasionally, under very intense solar wind perturbations, reconnection could be located closer to the Earth where current disruption processes usually operate. But it is unclear what the situation is at giant planets, in which the plasma environment is very different from the Earth. In this study, we investigate a middle-Jupiter reconnection event at ∼43 R _J . During the event, the inferred integrated cross-field currents were substantially reduced, which we argue is a signature of current disruption. In this case, we suggest that magnetic reconnection could be colocated with a current disruption process in the Jovian magnetosphere, which is roughly analogous to the situation in the extremely perturbed Earth’s magnetosphere.

Keywords