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Kiehas SA, Volkonskaya NN, Semenov VS, et al. Large-scale energy budget of impulsive magnetic reconnection: Theory and simulation. J Geophys Res Space Phys. 2017;122(3):3212-3231doi: 10.1002/2016JA023169.
Kiehas, S. A., Volkonskaya, N. N., Semenov, V. S., Erkaev, N. V., Kubyshkin, I. V., & Zaitsev, I. V. (2017). Large-scale energy budget of impulsive magnetic reconnection: Theory and simulation. Journal of geophysical research. Space physics, 122(3), 3212-3231. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023169
Kiehas, S A, et al. "Large-scale energy budget of impulsive magnetic reconnection: Theory and simulation." Journal of geophysical research. Space physics vol. 122,3 (2017): 3212-3231. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023169
Kiehas SA, Volkonskaya NN, Semenov VS, Erkaev NV, Kubyshkin IV, Zaitsev IV. Large-scale energy budget of impulsive magnetic reconnection: Theory and simulation. J Geophys Res Space Phys. 2017 Mar;122(3):3212-3231. doi: 10.1002/2016JA023169. Epub 2017 Mar 16. PMID: 28529838; PMCID: PMC5413852.
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J Geophys Res Space Phys. 2017 Mar;122(3):3212-3231. doi: 10.1002/2016JA023169. Epub 2017 Mar 16.

Large-scale energy budget of impulsive magnetic reconnection: Theory and simulation.

Journal of geophysical research. Space physics

S A Kiehas, N N Volkonskaya, V S Semenov, N V Erkaev, I V Kubyshkin, I V Zaitsev

Affiliations

  1. Space Research Institute Austrian Academy of Sciences Graz Austria.
  2. Institute of Physics St. Petersburg State University St. Petersburg Russia.
  3. Institute of Computational Modelling Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch Krasnoyarsk Russia.
  4. Department of Computational Physics Siberian Federal University Krasnoyarsk Russia.

PMID: 28529838 PMCID: PMC5413852 DOI: 10.1002/2016JA023169

Abstract

We evaluate the large-scale energy budget of magnetic reconnection utilizing an analytical time-dependent impulsive reconnection model and a numerical 2-D MHD simulation. With the generalization to compressible plasma, we can investigate changes in the thermal, kinetic, and magnetic energies. We study these changes in three different regions: (a) the region defined by the outflowing plasma (outflow region, OR), (b) the region of compressed magnetic fields above/below the OR (traveling compression region, TCR), and (c) the region trailing the OR and TCR (wake). For incompressible plasma, we find that the decrease inside the OR is compensated by the increase in kinetic energy. However, for the general compressible case, the decrease in magnetic energy inside the OR is not sufficient to explain the increase in thermal and kinetic energy. Hence, energy from other regions needs to be considered. We find that the decrease in thermal and magnetic energy in the wake, together with the decrease in magnetic energy inside the OR, is sufficient to feed the increase in kinetic and thermal energies in the OR and the increase in magnetic and thermal energies inside the TCR. That way, the energy budget is balanced, but consequently, not all magnetic energy is converted into kinetic and thermal energies of the OR. Instead, a certain fraction gets transfered into the TCR. As an upper limit of the efficiency of reconnection (magnetic energy → kinetic energy) we find

Keywords: magnetic reconnection; magnetospheric physics; plasma physics; substorms

References

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  3. Nature. 2006 Jan 12;439(7073):175-8 - PubMed
  4. J Geophys Res Space Phys. 2017 Mar;122(3):3212-3231 - PubMed
  5. Nat Commun. 2014 Sep 10;5:4774 - PubMed

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