Authors: Ramiz Qudsi (Boston University), Brian Walsh (Boston University)

Magnetic partial variance of increments or PVI is a simple and yet a very effective tool to find the location of intermittent structures in the space plasmas. For plasmas with extreme non-Maxwellian velocity distribution functions, like those of reconnection jets, the value of
PVI is often very high. Based on studies using simulation data such reconnection locations have been shown to have a PVI value of 6 or higher. However, except for a few case studies, this hasn’t been fully verified for in-situ spacecraft data.
An inventory of a list of reconnection locations as measured by MMS spacecraft and the availability of high cadence magnetic field and ion-velocity data provides a wonderful opportunity to carry out a statistical study between the occurrence of reconnection and enhancement in PVI and verify the aforementioned theory.

In this study, we present preliminary results to show the association between PVI enhancements and the concurrent occurrence/observation of reconnection jets on the dayside of earth’s magnetopause using MMS data.