Citation: | Qiu-Gang Zong, Hui Zhang. 2018: In situ detection of the electron diffusion region of collisionless magnetic reconnection at the high-latitude magnetopause. Earth and Planetary Physics, 2(3): 231-237. DOI: 10.26464/epp2018022 |
Magnetic reconnection is the most fundamental energy-transfer mechanism in the universe that converts magnetic energy into heat and kinetic energy of charged particles. For reconnection to occur, the frozen-in condition must break down in a localized region, commonly called the ‘diffusion region’. In Earth’s magnetosphere, ion diffusion regions have already been observed, while electron diffusion regions have not been detected due to their small scales (of the order of a few km) (