Characteristics of Turbulence Driven by Transient Magnetic Reconnection in the Terrestrial Magnetotail

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates the evolution of turbulence within the magnetotail reconnection exhaust observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. The reconnection was in an unsteady state that caused significant temporal variations in the outflow speed. By dividing the exhaust into nine fast flows, we analyzed and compared the characteristics of turbulence in these nine flows. We find that the strength of the intermittency has a good relationship with the peak speed of the fast flows. The higher-order analysis of magnetic field fluctuations reveals that the turbulence is multifractal in the inertial range for these flows except one with the highest peak speed. Moreover, the turbulence is monofractal on kinetic scales in all of these fast flows. The magnetic energy was intermittently dissipated in these turbulent flows, predominantly occurred in the coherent structures. Since the coherent structures with the largest energy dissipation in these flows are different, we suggest that the mechanism of energy dissipation may be different among these flows.