Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 13, 2025

Merging Ion Concentration Polarization between Juxtaposed Ion Exchange Membranes to Block the Propagation of the Polarization Zone
Published on: February 23, 2017
Observations of the step-like accelerating processes of cold ions in the reconnection layer at the dayside
Qinghe Zhang1, Michael Lockwood2, John C Foster3
1Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment, Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China.
Abstract:
Cold ions of plasmaspheric origin have been observed to abundantly appear in the magnetospheric side of the Earth's magnetopause. These cold ions could affect the magnetic reconnection processes at the magnetopause by changing the Alfvén velocity and the reconnection rate, while they could also be heated in the reconnection layer during the ongoing reconnections. We report in situ observations from a partially crossing of a reconnection layer near the subsolar magnetopause. During this crossing, step-like accelerating processes of the cold ions were clearly observed, suggesting that the inflow cold ions may be separately accelerated by the rotation discontinuity and slow shock inside the reconnection layer.
Related Concept Videos
Magnetostatic Boundary Conditions
Magnetic Field due to Moving Charges
Consider a point charge moving with a constant velocity. Like the electric field, the magnetic field at any point is directly proportional to the magnitude of the charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the source point and the field point. However, unlike the electric field, the magnetic field is always perpendicular to the plane containing the line...
Magnetic Field Lines
Magnetic field lines follow several hard-and-fast rules:
01:30Magnetic Polarity Evidence for Continental Drift
01:19Earth's Magnetic Field
Magnetic Field Of A Current Loop

