Inherently, magnetic reconnection—the process responsible for stellar flares and magnetospheric substorms—is very dynamic in space, owing to magnetic fluctuations and unsteady inflows. However, this process was always explained as a static picture in spacecraft measurements, neglecting the temporal evolution. This picture is not correct. Here we provide the first dynamic picture of magnetic reconnection in space, by monitoring the spatio-temporal evolution of a reconnection X-line at the magnetopause. Surprisingly, we find that the angle of a reconnection X-line can change from 44.°8 to 24.°9 during tens of milliseconds, which is significantly smaller than the characteristic timescale of the reconnection process ( t = d i / V A ∼ 410 ms). Meanwhile, the spacecraft moves from the inflow region to the outflow region (spatial evolution). This result demonstrates that the magnetic reconnection in space can develop rapidly during tens ...

中文翻译：

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监视空间中重新连接X线的时空演变

从本质上讲，由于磁的波动和不稳定的流入，磁重联是造成恒星耀斑和磁层亚暴的过程，在空间中非常动态。但是，这一过程在航天器测量中始终被解释为静态图片，而忽略了时间演变。这张图片不正确。在这里，我们通过监测磁层顶上重新连接的X线的时空演变，提供了空间中磁性重新连接的第一张动态图片。令人惊讶的是，我们发现重新连接的X线的角度可以在几十毫秒内从44.°8变为24.°9，这远小于重新连接过程的特征时间尺度（t = di / VA〜410多发性硬化症）。同时，航天器从流入区域移动到流出区域（空间演化）。