A remote‐sensing method for reconstructing the reconnection rate and the location of X‐line from single‐spacecraft observations developed recently is extended to a compressible plasma and an asymmetric magnetic field configuration. The method is based on the two‐dimensional analytical model of time‐dependent Petschek‐type magnetic reconnection. The reconstruction technique is applied to a nightside flux transfer event recorded by Cluster spacecraft in the near‐Earth magnetotail on 26 September 2005. The reconnection rate is found to be 3.7–4.8 mV/m; the reconnection distance is around 9–11 Re in the tail.
