Authors: M. B. Khan (University of Delaware), M. A. Shay (University of Delaware), S. Oughton (University of Waikato), W. H. Matthaeus (University of Delaware), C. C. Haggerty (University of Hawaii at Manoa), S. Adhikari (University of Delaware), P. A. Cassak (West Virginia University), S. Fordin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), D. O'Donnell (University of Delaware), Y. Yang (University of Delaware), R. Bandyopadhyay (Princeton University), S. Roy (University of Delaware)

Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous process in space and astrophysical plasmas. It plays an important role in the turbulent relaxation of space and astrophysical plasmas such as the solar corona, solar wind, and Earth’s magnetosheath. Recent studies have shed some light on the role of magnetic reconnection as an efficient energy dissipation mechanism in these large-scale turbulent systems. However, the connection between small-scale magnetic reconnection and turbulence in a large macroscopic system is still not fully understood. In these systems, the statistics of magnetic reconnection might play an important role in the dynamical evolution of the system, as suggested by some earlier studies. By statistics, we mean the number of X-lines reconnecting, their reconnection rates, and the properties upstream of the diffusion region. This work focuses on exploring the relation between these statistics of magnetic reconnection and their impact on the large-scale dynamics of the global turbulent system. In this study, we have simulated a large-scale turbulent system using pseudo-spectral MHD simulations. A large number of reconnection sites are found, and their statistical properties are quantified. For the first time, we showed the statistics of upstream reconnecting fields, in turbulence, are controlled by the turbulent fluctuations at the large scales.