Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufmsm13c..04g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #SM13C-04
Other
2134 Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, 2169 Solar Wind Sources, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7526)
Scientific paper
Only recently have we recognized how to identify the clear and unambiguous signature of local, quasi-stationary magnetic reconnection in the solar wind at 1 AU in ACE plasma and magnetic field data. The signature is a brief (typically ~11 minute) interval of accelerated or decelerated plasma flow within a bifurcated current sheet in which the changes in velocity and magnetic field vector are correlated at one segment of the sheet and anti-correlated at the other. We identify these events as encounters with Petschek-type reconnection exhausts bounded by Alfven and/or slow mode waves. We now have identified a large number (94) of reconnection exhausts in the Ulysses plasma and magnetic field data over heliographic latitudes ranging from +65 degs to -80 degs and over heliocentric distances ranging from 1.3 to 5.4 AU. The exhausts at high latitudes and large heliocentric distances are remarkably similar in nature to those observed in the ecliptic plane at 1 AU. As in the ecliptic plane at 1 AU, the exhausts are usually associated with relatively large changes in magnetic field orientation (90 to 180 degs) and the associated reconnection usually does not appear to be strongly driven, if at all, by velocity differences in the solar wind. However, on average the exhaust encounters are somewhat longer (factor of 1.6) at Ulysses, occur in somewhat higher proton beta plasmas (factor of 3.5), and the associated plasma accelerations and decelerations are somewhat more modest (factor of 0.6). We attribute these differences to the evolution of the exhausts with distance from the Sun and to the fact that proton betas are generally higher and Alfven speeds are generally lower at large heliocentric distances.
Eriksson Samantha
Forsyth Robert J.
Gosling Jack T.
McComas David John
Skoug Ruth M.
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