Oxygen impacts on dipolarization fronts and reconnection rate

Spacecraft observations near a magnetotail X line show that oxygen (O+) ions are minor species during nonstorm substorms, but they can become major species during some of the storm time substorms. Dipolarization fronts (DFs), which are characterized by a sharp increase northward magnetic field in the magnetotail, are commonly observed during magnetospheric substorms. In this study, we investigated the O+ effects on DFs and the reconnection rate during magnetotail reconnection. We used a 2.5‐D implicit particle‐in‐cell simulation in a 2‐D Harris current sheet in the presence of H+ and O+ ions. Simulation runs with equal number densities of O+ and H+ (O+ run) and with pure H+ ion species (H+ run) were performed. Comparing the two different runs, we found that both the reconnection rate and the DF speed in the O+ run were much less than those in the H+ run. By studying the force balance and plasma composition at the DF, we found that the outflow magnetic flux and DF propagation were encumbered by the current sheet O+ inertia, which reduced the DF speed and delayed the reconnection rate in the O+ run. We also found an ambipolar electric field in the O+ run due to the different inflow and outflow speeds of O+ and electrons in the O+ diffusion region. As a result, this ambipolar electric field induced O+ drag on the convective magnetic field in the O+ diffusion region. The small reconnection rate determined in the O+ run can be attributed to the current sheet inertia and the O+ drag on the convective magnetic flux. Key Points DF propagation has to overcome a current sheet O+ inertia DF thickness is mainly related to the penetration of current sheet ions O+ inertia can impede the magnetic flux propagation and thus reduce reconnection rate