Work

Reconnection Properties of Large-scale Current Sheets During Coronal Mass Ejection Eruptions

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT We present a detailed analysis of the properties of magnetic reconnection at large-scale current sheets (CSs) in a high cadence version of the Lynch & Edmondson 2.5D MHD simulation of sympathetic magnetic breakout eruptions from a pseudostreamer source region. We examine the resistive tearing and break-up of the three main CSs into chains of X- and O-type null points and follow the dynamics of magnetic island growth, their merging, transit, and ejection with the reconnection exhaust. For each CS, we quantify the evolution of the length-to-width aspect ratio (up to ∼100:1), Lundquist number (∼103), and reconnection rate (inflow-to-outflow ratios reaching ∼0.40). We examine the statistical and spectral properties of the fluctuations in the CSs resulting from the plasmoid instability, including the distribution of magnetic island area, mass, and flux content. We show that the temporal evolution of the spectral index of the reconnection-generated magnetic energy density fluctuations appear to reflect global properties of the CS evolution. Our results are in excellent agreement with recent, high-resolution reconnection-in-a-box simulations even though our CSs’ formation, growth, and dynamics are intrinsically coupled to the global evolution of sequential sympathetic coronal mass ejection eruptions.

Source: The Astrophysical Journal

DOI: 10.3847/0004-637x/826/1/43

Authors: B. J. Lynch, J. K. Edmondson, M. D. Kazachenko, S. E. Guidoni

Institutions: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, Goddard Space Flight Center, Heliophysics Science Division

Language: English

Topic: Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics

Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze