Kinetic scale magnetic holes in the terrestrial magnetosheath: a review
2024 (English)In: Science China. Earth Sciences, ISSN 1674-7313, E-ISSN 1869-1897, Vol. 67, no 9, p. 2739-2771Article, review/survey (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Magnetic holes at the ion-to-electron kinetic scale (KSMHs) are one of the extremely small intermittent structures generated in turbulent magnetized plasmas. In recent years, the explorations of KSMHs have made substantial strides, driven by the ultra-high-precision observational data gathered from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. This review paper summarizes the up-to-date characteristics of the KSMHs observed in Earth’s turbulent magnetosheath, as well as their potential impacts on space plasma. This review starts by introducing the fundamental properties of the KSMHs, including observational features, particle behaviors, scales, geometries, and distributions in terrestrial space. Researchers have discovered that KSMHs display a quasi-circular electron vortex-like structure attributed to electron diamagnetic drift. These electrons exhibit noticeable non-gyrotropy and undergo acceleration. The occurrence rate of KSMH in the Earth’s magnetosheath is significantly greater than in the solar wind and magnetotail, suggesting the turbulent magnetosheath is a primary source region. Additionally, KSMHs have also been generated in turbulence simulations and successfully reproduced by the kinetic equilibrium models. Furthermore, KSMHs have demonstrated their ability to accelerate electrons by a novel non-adiabatic electron acceleration mechanism, serve as an additional avenue for energy dissipation during magnetic reconnection, and generate diverse wave phenomena, including whistler waves, electrostatic solitary waves, and electron cyclotron waves in space plasma. These results highlight the magnetic hole’s impact such as wave-particle interaction, energy cascade/dissipation, and particle acceleration/heating in space plasma. We end this paper by summarizing these discoveries, discussing the generation mechanism, similar structures, and observations in the Earth’s magnetotail and solar wind, and presenting a future extension perspective in this active field.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2024. Vol. 67, no 9, p. 2739-2771
Keywords [en]
Coherent structure, Electron acceleration, Electron vortex, Kinetic scale, Magnetic dip/cavity, Magnetic hole, Magnetosheath, Mirror mode, Turbulence, Whistler
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-228289DOI: 10.1007/s11430-023-1290-8ISI: 001282852600003Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85200164557OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-228289DiVA, id: diva2:1887596
2024-08-082024-08-082024-08-20Bibliographically approved