Authors: Dominic Payne (UMD),Marc Swisdak(UMD), James Drake(UMD)

Magnetic shear (guide field) has been shown to play an important role in the rapidity and amount of energy release in solar flares.  Shear can act as a means of pressure balance in non-reconnecting current sheets as well as a local reservoir of available energy during reconnection itself.  However, the mechanistic relationship between changes in the local magnetic shear and plasma heating is not well understood.  Here, we explore the relationship between magnetic shear and variables that contribute to local thermal energy density (density and temperature) at various stages before, during, and after magnetic reconnection onset.  By characterizing the evolution of such variables alongside the local magnetic and electric energy density, we may better understand how magnetic shear is ultimately transformed into work on the local plasma particles.