HR: 1340h
AN: SH44A-1709    [Abstracts]
TI: Voyager II Observations of Magnetic Reconnection in the Inner and Middle Heliosphere
AU: * Stevens, M L
EM: mike@space.mit.edu
AF: MIT Kavli Institute, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
AU: Belcher, J W
EM: jwb@space.mit.edu
AF: MIT Kavli Institute, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
AU: Kasper, J C
EM: jck@space.mit.edu
AF: MIT Kavli Institute, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
AB: We use archival Voyager II data, primarily from the interplanetary cruise, to study signatures of magnetic reconnection in the solar wind well beyond 1 AU. Our search algorithm has identified 141 unique instances of pressure-balanced magnetic depressions that are (1) bounded by a pair of antisymmetric rotational discontinuities, and (2) accompanied by an Alfvénic or near-Alfvénic jet in the plane of rotation, as in the traversal of a Petchek-type reconnection exhaust. We present global statistics of these signatures from 1 AU out to 45 AU, and a study of the particle distribution functions of selected events.
DE: 2134 Interplanetary magnetic fields
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
DE: 7811 Discontinuities (2109)
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7526)
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting