HR: 08:35h
AN: SH51D-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: A Comparison of the Formation and Evolution of Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Solar Corona and Earth's Magnetotail
AU: * Moldwin, M B
EM: mmoldwin@ucla.edu
AF: UCLA, Earth and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, United States
AU: Linton, M
EM: linton@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Space Sciences Code 7675 4555 Overlook Ave., SW, Washington DC, 20375, United States
AB: Magnetic reconnection plays a fundamental role in the energization of solar and magnetospheric plasma and the reconfiguration of solar and geomagnetic fields. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and their interplanetary counterparts (ICMEs), often show evidence of a twisted flux rope structure that is nearly identical - though of vastly different spatial scale - as plasmoids observed in the Earth's magnetotail. This paper compares and contrasts the formation and evolution of CMEs and plasmoids. We demonstrate that magnetic reconnection in the solar corona and the Earth's magnetotail create similar magnetic structures, but that post-eruption dynamics and the magnetic and plasma differences of the heliosphere and magnetosphere lead to different evolutions and impacts on their surroundings.
DE: 7513 Coronal mass ejections (2101)
DE: 7524 Magnetic fields
DE: 7526 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7835)
DE: 7800 SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly