HR: 17:50h
AN: SH34A-07    [Abstracts]
TI: STEREO, ACE and Wind Observations of Reconnection X-line Extents and Durations in the Solar Wind
AU: * Gosling, J T
EM: jgosling@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Eriksson, S
EM: stefan.eriksson@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Blush, L M
EM: lisa.blush@space.unibe.ch
AF: University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5 3012, Bern, Switzerland
AU: Phan, T D
EM: phan@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Grizzly Peak Drive, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Luhmann, J G
EM: jgluhman@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Grizzly Peak Drive, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: McComas, D J
EM: dmccomas@swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX 78228-0510, United States
AU: Acuna, M H
EM: mario.acuna@nasa.gov
AF: Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 673, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Russell, C T
EM: ctrussel@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: University of California, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
AU: Galvin, A B
EM: toni.galvin@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, 39 College Road, Durham, NH 03824, United States
AB: Multi-spacecraft observations of magnetic reconnection exhausts in the solar wind near Earth have provided direct evidence that the exhausts typically result from quasi-stationary reconnection at continuous and extended X- lines. Thus far reconnection events have been identified where the X-line extended at least 2.5 x 10⁶ km and where reconnection persisted for at least 5 hours. These are only lower limits to X-line extents and reconnection durations, limited by available spacecraft spatial separations in the near-Earth vicinity. Although spacecraft separations typically have been large compared to separations available for studying reconnection in the magnetosphere, they have been small compared to the scale sizes of some current sheets in the solar wind. In order to extend these reconnection exhaust measurements to larger scale sizes and longer times, larger spacecraft separations are required. With the launch of the twin STEREO A and B spacecraft, which now increasingly lead and trail Earth in its orbit about the Sun, respectively, a large and varying range of spacecraft separations has become available for study. We have begun to identify solar wind reconnection exhausts in solar wind data as STEREO A and B drift ever further from the Sun-Earth line. Preliminary analysis reveals that common reconnection exhausts were observed by STEREO A and B and by ACE and Wind (both near L1) in the early phases of the STEREO mission. Here we report initial results of a study of X-line extents and reconnection durations as inferred from measurements by these four spacecraft in the early months of 2007.
DE: 7509 Corona
DE: 7513 Coronal mass ejections (2101)
DE: 7974 Solar effects
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly