MHD Simulation of Magnetic Sector Connections in the Heliosphere

Details MHD Simulation of Magnetic Sector Connections in the Heliosphere MHD Simulation of Magnetic Sector Connections in the Heliosphere

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsh32a0724r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SH32A-0724

Physics

2164 Solar Wind Plasma

Scientific paper

We use three-dimensional MHD simulations in spherical coordinates to show that the sectors of opposite magnetic polarity in the heliosphere are necessarily connected due to solar rotation and the tilt of the magnetic axis. This is not a sporadic reconnection, but rather a steady state condition initiated by nonradial flows caused by inevitable pressure imbalances. The differing constraints on magnetic and thermal pressures imply differing radial evolution of the magnetic and thermal pressures near the heliospheric current sheet. The transverse flows that attempt to enforce pressure balance lead to inductive electric fields that differ for the three magnetic field components. As a result, the radial and tangential fields do not become zero simultaneously, and the there is also a field component induced normal to the current sheet. The result is large field loops. The obersevational signature of this effect is the offset between the radial and tangential field zeros and the consequent nonzero magnitude of the field magnitude and rotation of the field across the sector boundary. Observations consistent with these simulations had provided a puzzle that had resisted a consistent interpretation for many years.

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