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American Geophysical Union, Journal of Geophysical Research, A3(116), 2011

DOI: 10.1029/2010ja016046

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Evolution of an MHD-scale Kelvin-Helmholtz vortex accompanied by magnetic reconnection: Two-dimensional particle simulations: EVOLUTION OF VORTEX-INDUCED RECONNECTION

Journal article published in 2011 by T. K. M. Nakamura ORCID, H. Hasegawa ORCID, I. Shinohara, M. Fujimoto
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

We have performed 2.5-dimensional full particle simulations of an MHD-scale Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) vortex and accompanying magnetic reconnection process. This is the first study of so-called vortex-induced reconnection (VIR) using kinetic simulations. First, as a key property of the VIR, we found that magnetic reconnection occurs at multiple points in the current sheet compressed by the flow of the KH vortex. The resulting meso-scale multiple islands are carried towards the vortex body along the vortex flow, and then are incorporated into the vortex body via the re-reconnection process. The rates of both the first reconnection and second re-reconnection processes are generally higher than that of spontaneous reconnection; both reconnection processes are of driven nature. Noteworthy is that the high rate of the first reconnection leads to strong magnetic field pile-up within the multiple islands. This characteristic magnetic structure of the islands could be used as new observational evidence for the occurrence of the VIR. Next, as a key kinetic aspect of the VIR, we found that a series of multiple island formation and incorporation processes simultaneously causes efficient plasma mixing and bi-directional electron acceleration along magnetic field lines within the vortex. These kinetic effects of the VIR could account for observed features of the Earth's low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL), where mixed ions and bi-directional field-aligned electrons generally coexist. In this presentation, we will discuss how important the VIR process is for the Earth's magnetopause.