Auroral evidence for multiple reconnection in the magnetospheric tail plasma sheet

TL;DR

This paper provides auroral evidence supporting the occurrence of multiple, small-scale magnetic reconnection events in the Earth's magnetospheric tail plasma sheet, suggesting complex current dynamics during auroral activity.

Contribution

It introduces auroral observations as evidence for multiple reconnection sites in the magnetospheric tail, highlighting the complexity of tail current layer dynamics.

Findings

Evidence of multiple reconnection sites during auroral activity

Auroral flux sequences imply several tailward reconnection events

Supports complex, small-scale reconnection processes in the magnetospheric tail

Abstract

We present auroral evidence for multiple and, most probably, small scale reconnection in the near Earth magnetospheric plasma sheet current layer during auroral activity. Hall currents as the source of upward and downward field-aligned currents require generation of the corresponding electron fluxes. The auroral spatial ordering in a multiple sequence of these fluxes requires the assumption of the existence of several -- and possibly -- even many tailward reconnection sites.