Direct Evidence for Prolonged Magnetic Reconnection at a Continuous X-Line Within the Heliospheric Current Sheet

HR: 10:20h
AN: SH32A-01 [Abstracts]
TI: Direct Evidence for Prolonged Magnetic Reconnection at a Continuous X-Line Within the Heliospheric Current Sheet
AU: * Gosling, J T
EM: jack.gosling@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University Of Colorado 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Eriksson, S
EM: stefan.eriksson@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University Of Colorado 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Phan, T D
EM: phan@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Larson, D E
EM: davin@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Skoug, R M
EM: rskoug@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545, United States
AU: McComas, D J
EM: DMcComas@swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, Space Science and Engineering Division P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX 78228, United States
AB: Observations by 5 spacecraft of an exceptionally broad (1.85 x 10⁶ km) Petschek-type reconnection exhaust within the heliospheric current sheet, HCS, in the solar wind at 1 AU on 31 August and 1 September 2001 provide convincing direct evidence for prolonged (at least 5 hours) magnetic reconnection at a continuous X-line in the solar wind. At least 1.2 x 10²⁴ ergs of magnetic energy were extracted from the HCS in this event and converted to kinetic and thermal energy of the exhaust plasma. The reconnection produced field lines disconnected from the Sun and may have originated inside the point where the solar wind became super- Alfvenic, thereby slightly reducing the amount of open magnetic flux present in the heliosphere.
DE: 2100 INTERPLANETARY PHYSICS
DE: 2101 Coronal mass ejections (7513)
DE: 2102 Corotating streams
DE: 2111 Ejecta, driver gases, and magnetic clouds
DE: 2114 Energetic particles (7514)
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly