Cai Hong

Spatial Evolution of Electrostatic Solitary Waves along Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer Adjacent to the Magnetic Reconnection X-Line

Analysis on the spatial structure of electrostatic solitary waves (ESWs) along the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) near an on-going magnetic reconnection X-line is performed. Most of the ESWs in the PSBL of R3 region near reconnection X-line are propagating earthwards away from the reconnecting site. An analysis of their spatial structure shows that, when ESWs propagate along the ambient field in the PSBL, outwards from the magnetic reconnection X-line, their amplitude will finally attenuate and thus the electron hole will fade away but their spatial scale remains unchanged. However, the spatial structure of propagating ESWs evolves from 1-D-like to 2-D-like though totally in a 1-D structure.

Large Bi-Polar Signature in a Perpendicular Electric Field of Two-Dimensional Electrostatic Solitary Waves Associated with Magnetic Reconnection: Statistics and Discussion

More than 300 electrostatic solitary waves (ESWs) with a large perpendicular component which is a bi-polar waveform structure are observed in the boundary layer within the magnetic reconnection diffusion region in the near-Earth magnetotail. Such ESWs are called two-dimensional ESWs. A Singe-reconnection-based-statistical study of two-dimensional ESWs shows that: (1) ESWs can be continuously observed in the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) associated with the magnetic reconnection diffusion region, and their amplitude ranges are mainly from several tens to hundreds of μV/m; (2) both one-dimension-like ESWs (very small magnitude on E⊥) and two-dimension-like ESWs (large magnitude on E⊥, which are even comparable to that in the E||) are observed within a small time interval; (3) within the observation time spans, more than 61% of ESWs are regarded as two-dimensional ESWs for the I2D > 20%. We discuss the bi-polar structure in E⊥. The observation of ESWs with a large bi-polar structure in the perpendicular electric field gives evidence that the unique waveform differs from previous understanding from observations and simulations which suggests that it should be a uni-polar waveform structure in the E⊥ of ESWs.