Suprathermal electrons during magnetic reconnection: Fermi model Original Research Article

Efficient electron acceleration in magnetic reconnection has been sometimes observed in the earthʹs magnetotail. We find that the energy spectrum has a suprathermal population above a few keV, and more importantly the higher energy spectrum can be fitted by exp(−αv). A simple model to explain the suprathermal electrons based on a Fermi acceleration process is proposed.