Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Mar 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007georl..3405109t&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 34, Issue 5, CiteID L05109
Physics
Plasma Physics
12
Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, Space Plasma Physics: Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7526), Space Plasma Physics: Nonlinear Phenomena (4400, 6944)
Scientific paper
Grad-Shafranov (GS) reconstruction is a novel tool for recovering steady two-dimensional (2-D) coherent magnetic field structures from data taken by a single spacecraft. We present first results from a recently developed version of GS reconstruction that incorporates the effects of dynamically significant field-aligned plasma flow. A new GS solver for this case has been developed and is benchmarked with an exact analytical solution. It is then applied to a magnetopause encounter by Cluster 1 (C1) and Cluster 3 (C3) on July 5, 2001. In the C1 crossing, a field-aligned plasma flow, in the frame co-moving with the local magnetopause structures, is present at approximately 57% of the Alfvén speed; in the C3 event the local flow is nearly Alfvénic. We find the following: (1) The recovered field maps are qualitatively similar to those obtained from magneto-hydrostatic GS reconstruction, indicating that the latter can be fairly robust. (2) Our code provides new information about plasma structure and supersonic field-aligned flow effects during reconnection. (3) We confirm results from the previous GS studies of the event, which indicated that significant time evolution occurred in the 30 s time lapse between the two crossings, owing to developing reconnection at a site close to the spacecraft. We provide an estimate of 0.47 mV/m for the reconnection electric field.
Hau Lin-Ni
Sonnerup Bengt U. Ö.
Teh Wai-Leong
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