Magnetic Reconnection in the Earth's Magnetotail

Abstract

Over the past few years satellite observations of the plasma sheet in the Earth's magnetotail during magnetospheric substorms have established beyond reasonable doubt that magnetic reconnection occurs in the magnetotail and that it plays a central role in the substorm process. The features seen at Earth by which substorms were originally identified (e.g. the auroras and geomagnetic disturbances) are simply superficial manifestations of a more fundamental physical process-the magnetosphere divesting itself of stored energy and plasma that was acquired earlier from the solar wind. It does so by shedding a part of its plasma sheet. This is accomplished by magnetic reconnection near the Earth that severs the plasma sheet, forming a plasmoid that flows out of the tail and that is lost to the solar wind. Recognition of the existence of plasmoids and our developing understanding of them have been important elements in confirming the occurrence of reconnection in the magnetosphere. In an analogous way, the best evidence for the occurrence of reconnection on the Sun has come from observations of closed magnetic configurations (plasmoids) in the solar wind and in the corona. But while magnetic reconnection is certainly the key ingredient in solar flares and substorms, analogies between them should not be carried too far, because there are basic differences in the environments in which they prevail and in the physical procesSes that lead to their occurrence.