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We investigate turbulence in magnetic reconnection jets in the Earth’s magnetotail using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. We show that signatures of a limited inertial range are observed in many reconnection jets. The observed turbulence develops on the timescale of a few ion gyroperiods, resulting in intermittent multifractal energy cascade from the characteristic scale of the jet down to the ion scales. We show that at sub-ion scales, the fluctuations are close to monofractal and predominantly kinetic Alfvén waves. The observed energy transfer rate across the inertial range is ∼108 J kg−1 s−1, which is the largest reported for space plasmas so far.

Electron temperature anisotropy-driven instabilities such as the electron firehose instability (EFI) are especially significant in space collisionless plasmas, where collisions are so scarce that wave-particle interactions are the leading mechanisms in the isotropization of the distribution function and energy transfer. Observational statistical studies provided convincing evidence in favor of the EFI constraining the electron distribution function and limiting the electron temperature anisotropy. Magnetic reconnection is characterized by regions of enhanced temperature anisotropy that could drive instabilities-including the electron firehose instability-affecting the particle dynamics and the energy conversion. However, in situ observations of the fluctuations generated by the EFI are still lacking and the interplay between magnetic reconnection and EFI is still largely unknown. In this study, we use high-resolution in situ measurements by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft to identify and investigate EFI fluctuations in the magnetic reconnection exhaust in the Earth's magnetotail. We find that the wave properties of the observed fluctuations largely agree with theoretical predictions of the non-propagating EF mode. These findings are further supported by comparison with the linear kinetic dispersion relation. Our results demonstrate that the magnetic reconnection outflow can be the seedbed of EFI and provide the first direct in situ observations of EFI-generated fluctuations.

Determination of the wave mode of short-wavelength electrostatic waves along with their generation mechanism requires reliable measurement of the wave electric field. We show that for such waves the electric field measured by Magnetospheric MultiScale becomes unreliable when the wavelength is close to the probe-to-probe separation. We develop a method, based on spin-plane interferometry, to reliably determine the full three-dimensional wave vector of the observed waves. We test the method on synthetic data and then apply it to ion acoustic wave bursts measured in the solar wind. By studying the statistical properties of ion acoustic waves in the solar wind, we retrieve the known results that the wave propagation is predominantly field aligned. We also determine the wavelength of the waves. We find that the nominal value is around 100 m, which when normalized to the Debye length corresponds to scales between 10 and 20 Debye lengths.

Electron heating at collisionless shocks in space is a combination of adiabatic heating due to large-scale electric and magnetic fields and non-adiabatic scattering by high-frequency fluctuations. The scales at which heating happens hints to what physical processes are taking place. In this letter, we study electron heating scales with data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft at Earth's quasi-perpendicular bow shock. We utilize the tight tetrahedron formation and high-resolution plasma measurements of MMS to directly measure the electron temperature gradient. From this, we reconstruct the electron temperature profile inside the shock ramp and find that the electron temperature increase takes place on ion or sub-ion scales. Further, we use Liouville mapping to investigate the electron distributions through the ramp to estimate the deHoffmann-Teller potential and electric field. We find that electron heating is highly non-adiabatic at the high-Mach number shocks studied here. Plain Language Summary Shock waves appear whenever a supersonic medium, such as a plasma, encounters an obstacle. The plasma, which consists of charged ions and free electrons, is heated by the shock wave through interactions with the electromagnetic fields. In this work, we investigate how electrons are heated at plasma shocks. A key parameter to electron heating is the thickness of the layer where the heating takes place. Here, we use observations from the four Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft that regularly cross the standing bow shock that forms when the supersonic plasma, known as the solar wind, encounters Earth's magnetic field. We find that the thickness of the shock is larger than previously reported and is on the scales where ion physics dominate. We also find that the electron heating deviates significantly from simple adiabatic heating.

Agyrotropic electron distributions are frequently taken as an indicator of electron diffusion regions of magnetic reconnection. However, they have also been found at electron-scale boundaries of the non-reconnecting magnetopause and are generated by the electron finite gyroradius effect. Here, we present magnetospheric multiscale observations of agyrotropic electron distributions in the foreshock region. These distributions are generated by the electron finite gyroradius effect after magnetic curvature scattering at a thin electron-scale boundary. Meanwhile, the signatures of magnetic reconnection are absent at this boundary. The test-particle simulation is adopted to verify the generation of the agyrotropic electron distributions by assuming one-dimensional magnetic geometry. These observations suggest that agyrotropic electron distributions can be more widely formed at electron-scale boundaries in space plasma environment. Plain Language Summary The agyrotropic electron distributions, which could be unstable to generate high frequency electrostatic waves, reveal valuable information of electron dynamics at electron scales. However, due to electron's small mass, the related observational study becomes only possible with the high-resolution magnetospheric multiscale data. In this study, we show that the agyrotropic electron distributions can be also formed in the foreshock transients such as inside an hot flow anomaly, suggesting that agyrotropic electron distributions are ubiquitous in space plasma.

In this study, we investigate detailed electron dynamics in strong guide-field reconnection (the normalized guide field is similar to 1.5). This reconnection event is observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft at the center of a flux rope in the magnetotail. With the presence of a large parallel electric field (E-||) in the electron current sheet, electrons are accelerated when streaming into this E-|| region from one direction, and decelerated from the other direction. Some decelerated electrons can reduce the parallel speed to similar to 0 to form relatively isotropic electron distributions at one side of the electron current sheet, as the estimated acceleration potential satisfies the relation e Phi(||) >= kT(e,||), where T-e,T-|| is the electron temperature parallel to the magnetic field. Therefore, a large E-|| is generated to balance the parallel electron pressure gradient across the electron current sheet, since electrons at the other side of the current sheet are still anisotropic. Based on these observations, we further show that the electron beta is an important parameter in guide-field reconnection, providing a new perspective to solve the large parallel electric field puzzle in guide-field reconnection. Plain Language Summary Magnetic reconnection is a universal process that rapidly converts energy from the magnetic field to plasma. The energy conversion at kinetic scales is of particular interest to researchers, as it is directly related to reconnection process in the central diffusion region. In general, the reconnecting magnetic fields do not have to be antiparallel, and an additional magnetic component known as the guide field (B-g) can appear in the direction perpendicular to the reconnecting plane. Recently, observations from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission show a large electric field parallel to the local magnetic field, which is several times larger than the reconnection electric field, can appear in guide-field reconne

This paper presents the magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) observations of three flux ropes (FRs) sequentially in a reconnection exhaust at Earth's magnetopause. Three active X-lines, which are responsible for the formation of these FRs, were also detected by MMS, providing strong evidence that the FRs were generated by multiple X-line reconnection. We find that the core field inside the FRs considerably affects the Hall current in the adjacent X-lines. The intense core field of the FRs deflected the electron outflow jet, forming the electron-scale Hall magnetic field on the magnetosheath side. Additionally, an active secondary reconnection was observed at the center of one FR. This secondary reconnection split the FR into two smaller FRs and produced sharp density gradients and intense fluctuations of electric field and current within the FR. These observations advance the understanding of the formation and evolution of FRs during multiple X-line reconnection at magnetopause.

We investigate electrostatic waves in a magnetopause reconnection event around a secondary electron diffusion region. Near the current sheet mid-plane, parallel electron beam-mode waves are modulated by whistler waves. We conclude that the anisotropy of energized electrons in the reconnection exhaust excites whistler waves, which produce spatially modulated electron beams through nonlinear Landau resonance, and these beams excite beam-mode electrostatic waves. In the separatrix region, parallel propagating electrostatic waves associated with field-aligned electron beams and perpendicular propagating electron cyclotron harmonic waves with loss cone distributions exhibit modulation frequencies in the lower-hybrid wave (LHW) frequency range. We infer that LHWs scatter electrons to produce beams and alter loss cones to modulate electrostatic waves. The results advance our understanding about the regimes and mechanisms of electrostatic waves in reconnection, with an emphasis on their coupling with lower-frequency electromagnetic waves. Magnetic reconnection is an important energy dissipation process at the Earth's dayside magnetopause. In its central region, plasmas deviate from the thermal equilibrium and form structured distribution functions, which excite plasma waves. We investigate high-frequency electrostatic waves in an event, where the waves are associated with electron beam-plasma interaction or anisotropy of distribution functions. We find that electrostatic waves are driven and modulated by lower-frequency waves, as the latter alters the particle distribution functions. The results help us understand how various processes couple with each other to achieve the energy dissipation. Parallel electron beam-mode waves are modulated by whistler near the current sheet mid-plane, by driving beams through Landau resonanceElectron beam-mode and cyclotron waves are modulated by lower-hybrid waves near separatrices, with beam and loss cone distributions