Turbulent Energization of Electron Power Law Tails during Magnetic Reconnection.

Earth's magnetotail is an excellent laboratory to study the interplay of reconnection and turbulence in determining electron energization. The process of formation of a power law tail during turbulent reconnection is a documented fact still in need of a comprehensive explanation. We conduct a massively parallel, particle in cell 3D simulation and use enhanced statistical resolution of the high energy range of the particle velocities to study how reconnection creates the conditions for the tail to be formed.

Near-Infrared Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy as an Indirect Technique to Assess Brown Adipose Tissue in Young Women.

Purpose: Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has recently been proposed as an indirect technique to assess brown adipose tissue (BAT) in young men. NIRS arises as a novel technique to avoid the limitations of the "gold-standard" 2-deoxy-2-[F]fluoro-D-glucose ([F]DG) positron emission tomography combined with X-ray computed tomography (PET/CT). The aim of this study was to examine the association between near-infrared spatially resolved spectroscopy (NIR) parameters and BAT volume and activity estimated by [F]DG-PET/CT in 18 young healthy women.

Coalescence of Macroscopic Flux Ropes at the Subsolar Magnetopause: Magnetospheric Multiscale Observations.

We report unambiguous in situ observation of the coalescence of macroscopic flux ropes by the magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) mission. Two coalescing flux ropes with sizes of ∼1  R_{E} were identified at the subsolar magnetopause by the occurrence of an asymmetric quadrupolar signature in the normal component of the magnetic field measured by the MMS spacecraft. An electron diffusion region (EDR) with a width of four local electron inertial lengths was embedded within the merging current sheet.

Extended magnetic reconnection across the dayside magnetopause.

The extent of where magnetic reconnection (MR), the dominant process responsible for energy and plasma transport into the magnetosphere, operates across Earth's dayside magnetopause has previously been only indirectly shown by observations. We report the first direct evidence of X-line structure resulting from the operation of MR at each of two widely separated locations along the tilted, subsolar line of maximum current on Earth's magnetopause, confirming the operation of MR at two or more sites across the extended region where MR is expected to occur. The evidence results from in-situ observations of the associated ion and electron plasma distributions, present within each magnetic X-line structure, taken by two spacecraft passing through the active MR regions simultaneously.