Magnetic reconnection: three-dimensional aspects and onset in themagnetotail

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma transport mechanism in space and laboratory plasmas. In recent years, much progress has been made in the understanding of the fundamentals of the reconnection process, including basic laws governing magnetic reconnection in three dimensions, the physical mechanisms providing the electric field in the dissipation region, and the onset of magnetic reconnection in the magnetotaiI of the Earth. This paper summarizes this progress and uses numerical simulations to illustrate the theoretical results in the framework of a solar and a magnetospheric example of magnetic reconnection