Ion dynamics during magnetotail reconnection Original Research Article

Due to the breakdown of particle adiabaticity in the tail current sheet with its highly curved magnetic field the application of fluid equations is questionable. Therefore a detailed understanding of magnetotail dynamics during reconnection requires that the particle dynamics is resolved on length scales comparable to the ion inertia length and/or the ion gyroradius. Furthermore, slow mode shocks are expected to occur during magnetotail reconnection. Their structure, length scale and dissipation can only be investigated by kinetic simulations. We review recent results obtained from full particle simulations and hybrid simulations of magnetotail reconnection. We will demonstrate that ion kinetic effects determine not only the small scale structure, but are also of great importance for the large-scale structures during magnetotail reconnection.