Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsh24a..06g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SH24A-06
Physics
2111 Ejecta, Driver Gases, And Magnetic Clouds, 2134 Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, 2164 Solar Wind Plasma, 7811 Discontinuities (2109), 7835 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7526)
Scientific paper
We report observations from the Wind spacecraft of Petschek-like magnetic reconnection exhausts and thin current sheets in the solar wind on 19 and 20 November 2007, encompassing a solar wind disturbance driven by a magnetic cloud and followed by a corotating high-speed stream. We have identified an unusually large number (11) of reconnection exhausts in this 2-day interval using 3-s plasma and magnetic field data. Despite the relatively smooth, large-scale field rotation associated with the magnetic cloud, 5 of the exhausts occurred within the cloud; 3 of those exhausts were associated with extremely small (less than 18 deg) local field shear angles. All 11 exhausts contained double-step magnetic field rotations; such double-step rotations are called bifurcated current sheets since they result from the splitting of reconnecting current sheets as an after-effect of the reconnection process. We have also identified 27 current sheets in this 2-day interval that were too thin to be adequately resolved by the 3-s plasma measurement cadence. All of these thin current sheets were well resolved by the 92 ms magnetic field measurement. At least 3, and possibly 6, of these relatively thin current sheets had double-step magnetic field rotations, indicating the underlying current sheets had probably been disrupted by magnetic reconnection. Current sheets thinner than about 3 ion inertial lengths were not present in this data set. The relative lack of such ultra-thin current sheets in the solar wind in general suggests that such current sheets usually are quickly disrupted by magnetic reconnection.
Gosling Jack T.
Szabo Andras
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