Statistical Analysis of Ion Diffusion Region Characteristics Using
Scalar Parameters
Abstract
Scalar parameters of various aspects of magnetic reconnection offer
easily comparable measures of the characteristics of the diffusion
regions surrounding X-lines in a way arguably more general than other
attributes which may depend on the coordinate system used. We performed
a principal component analysis (PCA) of several scalar parameters
including measures of relative magnetic field line (MFL) curvature, ion
agyrotropy, energy conversion rate, electric field, and current density
in the time spans surrounding and including independently identified ion
diffusion regions (IDRs) observed by MMS in the geomagnetic tail. We
find that relative MFL curvature is the most bold indicator of an IDR
encounter while some more traditional measures vary comparatively little
between IDRs and the regions adjacent to them when averaged across
events. More granular statistics are also presented and discussed.