HR: 0800h
AN: SM31B-0419    [Abstracts]
TI: Direct Detection of a Magnetic Reconnection Exhaust in a Current Sheet Embedded in the Magnetosheath Flow
AU: * Twitty, C K
EM: colleent@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
AU: Phan, T D
EM: phan@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
AU: Reme, H
EM: Henri.Reme@cesr.fr
AF: Centre D'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, Centre D'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, Toulouse, 00000 France
AU: Balogh, A
EM: a.balogh@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College, Imperial College, London, 00000
AB: 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.
DE: 2700 MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS (6939)
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 2728 Magnetosheath
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
DE: 6939 Magnetospheric physics (2700)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005