edu.ucar.opensky::articles:18240 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-26T03:26:06.312851 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7gh9kj8 Ionospheric control of magnetotail reconnection 2014-07-11T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7gh9kj8 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1252907 Lotko, William author Smith, R. author Zhang, B. author Ouellette, J. author Brambles, O. author Lyon, J. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Observed distributions of high-speed plasma flows at distances of 10 to 30 Earth radii (RE) in Earth's magnetotail neutral sheet are highly skewed toward the premidnight sector. The flows are a product of the magnetic reconnection process that converts magnetic energy stored in the magnetotail into plasma kinetic and thermal energy. We show, using global numerical simulations, that the electrodynamic interaction between Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere produces an asymmetry consistent with observed distributions in nightside reconnection and plasmasheet flows and in accompanying ionospheric convection. The primary causal agent is the meridional gradient in the ionospheric Hall conductance which, through the Cowling effect, regulates the distribution of electrical currents flowing within and between the ionosphere and magnetotail. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright 2014 Author(s)s. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science [345, 2014-07-11], doi:10.1126/science.1252907 None eng geoscientificInformation