Evidence for bow shock triggered magnetic reconnection in the magnetosheath

Details Evidence for bow shock triggered magnetic reconnection in the magnetosheath Evidence for bow shock triggered magnetic reconnection in the magnetosheath

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm41a1438p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM41A-1438

Other

2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 2728 Magnetosheath

Scientific paper

Magnetic reconnection occurs in current sheets separating plasmas with different magnetic field orientations. Signatures of collisionless reconnection have been reported in the Earth's magnetosphere as well as in the solar wind current sheets. In some solar wind reconnection events, the X-line extends to millions of kilometers (or tens of thousands of ion skin depths). Here we report Cluster multi-spacecraft observations of a current sheet embedded in the magnetosheath flow just upstream of the dayside magnetopause. Clear signatures of reconnection in terms of (1) accelerated flows, (2) interpenetrating ion beams, and (3) reconnection electric field were detected by one of the Cluster spacecraft. However, the other spacecraft, situated 3000-5000 km away, did not observe these reconnection signatures. Furthermore, the same current sheet was observed upstream in the solar wind by the Wind and ACE spacecraft but also without the reconnection signatures. These observations suggest that reconnection was initiated when the (non-reconnecting) solar wind current sheet interacted with the bow shock, but that the X-line was still limited to less than a few hundred ion skin depths two Earth radii downstream of the bow shock.

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