Evidence for electron acceleration up to approximately 300 keV in the magnetic reconnection diffusion region of earth's magnetotail.
We report direct measurements of high-energy particles in a rare crossing of the diffusion region in Earth's magnetotail by the Wind spacecraft. The fluxes of energetic electrons up to approximately 300 keV peak near the center of the diffusion region and decrease monotonically away from this region. The diffusion region electron flux spectrum obeys a power law with an index of -3.8 above approximately 2 keV, and the electron angular distribution displays strong field-aligned bidirectional anisotropy at energies below approximately 2 keV, becoming isotropic above approximately 6 keV. These observations indicate significant electron acceleration inside the diffusion region. Ions show no such energization.
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Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Lin
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Phan
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Larson
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Bale
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