Physics
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sh51c04c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SH51C-04
Physics
2111 Ejecta, Driver Gases, And Magnetic Clouds, 2134 Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, 7513 Coronal Mass Ejections, 7524 Magnetic Fields
Scientific paper
When counterstreaming electrons became a widely used signature of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), the problem of how to balance the magnetic flux ICMEs contribute to the heliosphere began to receive more attention, since counterstreaming electrons imply that both ends of ICME field lines remain connected to the Sun. Papers on the subject propose the process of disconnection, that is, merging between open field lines to create U-shaped structures or merging between closed field lines to create plasmoids. Evidence of the former, however, in the form of electron heat flux dropout occurrences, although at first thought to be sufficient, later proved to be too sparse, while the latter, from a 3D point of view, is now generally thought to produce only partial disconnection through flux rope formation. A different view of the problem emerges when magnetic clouds are used to identify ICME boundaries in order to determine their counterstreaming electron content independently. In a recent study, the sum of intervals of counterstreaming electrons within magnetic clouds was found to vary from 0% to 100% of the cloud interval, implying that clouds vary from completely open to completely closed. With regard to the heliospheric flux budget, these results imply that there is no need for disconnection through merging between open field lines. Instead, merging between closed and open fields, which we call "interchange reconnection," can occur in the corona in the foot of an ICME and gradually convert its closed fields to open ones. Proposed earlier as a step in the process of complete ICME disconnection, interchange reconnection by itself may be the dominant process by which ICMEs assimilate into the solar wind. On a global scale, interchange reconnection may be driven by the large-scale circulation of open field lines required by the Fisk model.
Crooker Nancy U.
Gosling Jack T.
Kahler Stephen W.
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