HR: 1340h
AN: SH13A-1160    [Abstracts]
TI: Three Dimensional, Patchy Reconnection in a One Dimensional Current Sheet
AU: * Linton, M G
EM: linton@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Reserch Laboratory, Code 7675, Washington, DC 20375
AU: Longcope, D W
EM: dana@physics.montana.edu
AF: Montana State University, Department of Physics, Bozeman, MT 59717
AB: Due to the highly complex nature of the 3D solar coronal magnetic field, it is likely that reconnection will often be patchy, consisting of many short-duration, highly localized events. To investigate this possibility and its implications, we have studied the dynamics of localized 3D reconnection in a large scale 1D current sheet. We impose the reconnection in an MHD simulation by enhancing the resistivity in a small region for a short time, thus allowing a finite amount of flux to reconnect. This forms a pair of 3D reconnected flux tubes piercing the current sheet. These tubes then retract from the reconnection region, pushing their way through the surrounding magnetic field. We will discuss the dynamics of these flux tubes, their possible relation to descending `tadpole'-like features sometimes observed during flares, and the evolution of the shocks which form during the reconnection and then propagate along the tubes. This work has been supported by NASA and ONR.
DE: 7519 Flares
DE: 7524 Magnetic fields
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting