Energy budget of the reconnection process

Abstract

The relevance of magnetic reconnection in the frame of space plasmas is mainly due to the energy conversion taking place during this process. We address our investigations within this article to the energy budget of the reconnection process and focus our research on the conversion of magnetic energy into kinetic plasma energy and the spatial redistribution of the energy density. Using a time-dependent MHD reconnection model for an incompressible plasma, we derive the amount of released kinetic plasma energy and identify regions of enhanced an decreased magnetic field energy. The decrease of magnetic field energy in the wake of the outflowing plasma regions is compensated by a field energy enhancement above and below the outflow regions. This field energy is two times higher than the kinetic energy inside the plasma flow regions and gets removed from the reconnection site together with the plasma flow. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.