资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Magnetic reconnection and turbulence are the two most important energy dissipation processes in plasma. These two processes intertwine with each other and play important roles in their respective dynamic evolution. Here we present the first evidence that secondary reconnections occur in the turbulent outflow driven by a primary reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail. We have identified 14 secondary reconnections in a large number of current filaments in the turbulent outflow, which persisted for about one and half an hour. Most of these secondary reconnections were electron'only reconnection that has recently been discovered in the magnetosheath. These secondary reconnections entangled the magnetic field lines and dissipated the magnetic energy in the outflow region far away from the primary X line.

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