Abstract
<jats:p>Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into plasma flows and heating. The pressure--strain interaction quantifies the local energy conversion between bulk kinetic energy and thermal energy. However, in-situ observations of ion pressure--strain interaction during magnetic reconnection are still limited. In this study, we analyze 14 magnetotail reconnection events observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission to investigate the characteristics of ion pressure--strain interaction and energy conversion. Statistical results indicate that the pressure--dilatation term dominates the pressure--strain interaction in the ion flow reversal region of reconnection. The distributions of both ion pressure--strain interaction and convective ion thermal-energy transport broaden with increasing ion temperature. Comparison between ion pressure--strain interaction and electromagnetic work |J&middot;E| shows that the former generally exceeds the latter, particularly in high-speed reconnection outflows. These results provide observational insights into ion pressure--strain interaction and its role in bulk kinetic-to-thermal energy conversion during magnetotail magnetic reconnection.</jats:p>