Electron Heating at Kinetic Scales in Magnetosheath Turbulence

A. Chasapis (1) , W. H. Matthaeus , T. N. Parashar , Olivier Le Contel (2) , Alessandro Retinò (1) , Hugo Breuillard (1) , Y. V. Khotyaintsev , A. Vaivads , B. Lavraud , E. Eriksson , T. E. Moore , J. L. Burch , R. B. Torbert , P.-A. Lindqvist (3) , R. E. Ergun , G. Marklund , K. A. Goodrich , F. D. Wilder , M. Chutter , J. Needell , D. Rau , I. Dors , C. T. Russell , G. Le , W. Magnes , R. J. Strangeway , K. R. Bromund , H. K. Leinweber , F. Plaschke , D. Fischer , B. J. Anderson , C. J. Pollock , B. L. Giles , W. R. Paterson , J. C. Dorelli (4) , D. J. Gershman (4) , L. Avanov (4) , Y. Saito (5, 6)

1 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
2 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
3 Alfven Laboratory
4 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
5 Hokkaido University [Sapporo, Japan]
6 Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences

We present a statistical study of coherent structures at kinetic scales, using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission in the Earth's magnetosheath. We implemented the multi-spacecraft partial variance of increments (PVI) technique to detect these structures, which are associated with intermittency at kinetic scales. We examine the properties of the electron heating occurring within such structures. We find that, statistically, structures with a high PVI index are regions of significant electron heating. We also focus on one such structure, a current sheet, which shows some signatures consistent with magnetic reconnection. Strong parallel electron heating coincides with whistler emissions at the edges of the current sheet.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

A. Chasapis, W. H. Matthaeus, T. N. Parashar, Olivier Le Contel, Alessandro Retinò, et al.. Electron Heating at Kinetic Scales in Magnetosheath Turbulence. The Astrophysical Journal, 2017, 836, pp.247. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/836/2/247⟩. ⟨hal-01895711⟩