资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Magnetic reconnection is a universal process where energy is transferred from magnetic fields to particles. However, it remains unclear whether this transfer of energy includes the direct energization of particles to high energies (i.e., >10s of keV). We compare the spectral indices of energetic (50‐200 keV) electrons from six magnetotail electron diffusion region candidates encountered by MMS with those from “quiet‐time” plasma sheet crossings to test whether energetic electron enhancements result from direct energization at/near the reconnection site or simply focusing high‐energy populations that do not originate from the nearby X‐line and already exist in the plasma sheet along the newly reconnected field lines. The study suggests that active reconnection can be a source of localized electron energization. However, the EDR spectra are not outside the range of those from the quiet‐time plasma sheet, which surprisingly still often have very energetic (up to and beyond 200 keV) electrons present.