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A magnetic reconnection X-line extending more than 390 Earth radii in the solar wind
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Journal Article
A magnetic reconnection X-line extending more than 390 Earth radii in the solar wind
2006
Overview
Feel the Force
Magnetic reconnection is a process in which pairs of magnetic field lines merge to convert magnetic energy into particle energy. Kinks formed in the merged field lines produce a slingshot effect that accelerates high-speed plasma jets away from the merger site. The process supplies energy to solar flares and the space storms near Earth that interfere with electric power grids and telecommunications. Space physicists have long debated whether reconnection occurs over great distances, or randomly in localized patches. On 2 February 2002, the Cluster, ACE and Wind spacecraft, widely separated in interplanetary space, all detected similar plasma jets within the same passing current sheet. It was direct evidence of a 2.5-million-kilometre reconnection region, confirming that magnetic reconnection can occur on a very large scale over long periods. On the cover, kinked magnetic field lines accelerate a pair of particle jets.
Magnetic reconnection in a current sheet converts magnetic energy into particle energy, a process that is important in many laboratory
1
, space
2
,
3
and astrophysical contexts
4
,
5
,
6
. It is not known at present whether reconnection is fundamentally a process that can occur over an extended region in space or whether it is patchy and unpredictable in nature
7
. Frequent reports of small-scale flux ropes and flow channels associated with reconnection
8
,
9
,
10
,
11
,
12
,
13
in the Earth's magnetosphere raise the possibility that reconnection is intrinsically patchy, with each reconnection X-line (the line along which oppositely directed magnetic field lines reconnect) extending at most a few Earth radii (
R
E
), even though the associated current sheets span many tens or hundreds of
R
E
. Here we report three-spacecraft observations of accelerated flow associated with reconnection in a current sheet embedded in the solar wind flow, where the reconnection X-line extended at least 390
R
E
(or 2.5 × 10
6
km). Observations of this and 27 similar events imply that reconnection is fundamentally a large-scale process. Patchy reconnection observed in the Earth's magnetosphere is therefore likely to be a geophysical effect associated with fluctuating boundary conditions, rather than a fundamental property of reconnection. Our observations also reveal, surprisingly, that reconnection can operate in a quasi-steady-state manner even when undriven by the external flow.
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing,Nature Publishing Group
