资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Lower‐hybrid drift waves driving vortical flows have recently been discovered in the electron current layer during magnetic reconnection in the terrestrial magnetotail. Yet, spacecraft measurements cannot address how pervasive the waves are. We perform three‐dimensional particle‐in‐cell simulations of guide‐field reconnection to demonstrate that electron vortices driven by the lower‐hybrid‐drift instability (LHDI) are excited immediately downstream from the electron jet reversal in 3D channels of enhanced electron outflow. The resulting fluctuations generate a series of alternating vortices, producing magnetic field perturbations opposing and enhancing the local guide field and causing kinking of the enhanced electron outflow and patches of increased current. Our results demonstrate for the first time that LHDI exists in the electron current layer and enhanced outflow channels, providing a conceptual breakthrough on the LHDI in reconnection.