Jf. Drake et al., BREAKUP OF THE ELECTRON CURRENT LAYER DURING 3-D COLLISIONLESS MAGNETIC RECONNECTION, Geophysical research letters, 24(22), 1997, pp. 2921-2924
The structure of the electron current layer which forms in the dissipa
tion region during magnetic reconnection in a collisionless plasma is
explored by advancing the 3 - D electron magnetohydrodynamic (EMHD) eq
uations. The current layer thins down below the electron skin depth c/
omega(pe) and then breaks up into a fully turbulent distribution of sw
irling vortices. The turbulence is sufficiently strong that current is
largely shunted into the plane of the magnetic reconnection. The resu
lts are consistent with the absense of electron scale current layers i
n satellite observations of the magnetosphere.