HR: 0800h
AN: SH41B-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Identifying and Characterizing Small-Scale Flux Rope Structures in the Solar Wind Over a Full Solar Cycle
AU: * Cartwright, M L
EM: mcartwri@ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, 595 Charles E. Young Drive East Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
AU: * Cartwright, M L
EM: mcartwri@ucla.edu
AF: Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, Slichter 6869, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
AU: Moldwin, M B
EM: mmoldwin@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, 595 Charles E. Young Drive East Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
AU: Moldwin, M B
EM: mmoldwin@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, Slichter 6869, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
AB: A new class of flux ropes have been discovered with much smaller time (on the order of 1 hr) and length scales compared to day-long magnetic clouds. We developed an automated technique that identifies small-scale flux ropes through recognizing strong core fields coincident with bipolar signatures. Using our automatic technique we have analyzed WIND spacecraft magnetic field and plasma data from 1995-2005. We identified 213 flux ropes with a time-scale of 40 minutes up to 12 hours. The distribution of flux ropes per year peaks in1996 near solar minimum. The majority of flux ropes had a time-scale of 1 hour in length. Their solar wind context (i.e. relationship to the heliospheric current sheet, CIR's) and plasma properties (i.e. number density, proton temperature, etc.) are presented.
DE: 2111 Ejecta, driver gases, and magnetic clouds
DE: 2134 Interplanetary magnetic fields
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly