Contours of the out-of-plane current density, ﹩{{\boldsymbol{J}}}_{\parallel }﹩, before and after the onset of magnetic reconnection. Panels (a)–(b): whole HPIC grid around ﹩{t}_{\mathrm{rec}}^{\mathrm{HPIC}}\sim 40﹩. Panels (c)–(f): two HPIC subgrids, containing one reconnecting current sheet. Additionally, isocontours of ﹩{A}_{| | }﹩ are drawn in green. Panels (g)–(j): the same for the HVM simulation, but around ﹩{t}_{\mathrm{rec}}^{\mathrm{HVM}}\sim 135﹩. Panels (k)–(m): contours of ﹩| {\boldsymbol{B}}{| }^{2}﹩ for the whole HPIC grid and the two HPIC subgrids.

(Animations (k, l, and m) of this figure are available.)

The video/animation of this figure is available in the online journal.