Direct Detection of a Magnetic Reconnection Exhaust in a Current Sheet Embedded in the Magnetosheath Flow

Physics

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2700 Magnetospheric Physics (6939), 2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 2728 Magnetosheath, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 6939 Magnetospheric Physics (2700)

Scientific paper

Magnetic reconnection occurs in current sheets separating plasmas with different magnetic field orientations. Signatures of reconnection have been reported in the Earth's magnetosphere as well as in the solar wind current sheets. Here we report Cluster observations of accelerated flows and interpenetrating ion beams in a current sheet convecting with the magnetosheath flow. We take these signatures as evidence for reconnection in the magnetosheath. The same current sheet was observed upstream in the solar wind by the Wind spacecraft but without the reconnection signatures. These observations suggest that reconnection was initiated when the current sheet interacted with the bow shock, as predicted in a simulation by Maynard et al. [2002]. Maynard, N. C., et al., Predictions of magnetosheath merging between IMF field lines of opposite polarity, J. of Geophys. Res., 107, A12, SMP 23-1, DOI 10.1029/2002JA009289, 2002.

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