Global Structure of Magnetotail Reconnection Revealed by Mining Space Magnetometer Data
G. K. Stephens, M. I. Sitnov, R. S. Weigel, D. L. Turner, N. A. Tsyganenko, A. J. Rogers, K. J. Genestreti, J. A. Slavin
Abstract
Abstract Reconnection in the magnetotail occurs along so‐called X‐lines, where magnetic field lines tear and detach from plasma on microscopic spatial scales (comparable to particle gyroradii). In 2017–2020, the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission detected X‐lines in the magnetotail enabling their investigation on local scales. However, the global structure and evolution of these X‐lines, critical for understanding their formation and total energy conversion mechanisms, remained virtually unknown because of the intrinsically local nature of observations and the extreme sparsity of concurrent data. Here, we show that mining a multi‐mission archive of space magnetometer data collected over the last 26 yr and then fitting a magnetic field representation modeled using flexible basis‐functions faithfully reconstructs the global pattern of X‐lines; 24 of the 26 modeled X‐lines match ( B z = 0 isocontours are within ∼2 Earth radii or R E ) or nearly match ( B z = 2 nT isocontours are within ∼2 R E ) the locations of the MMS encountered reconnection sites. The obtained global reconnection picture is considered in the context of substorm activity, including conventional substorms and more complex events.