Parker Solar Probe observations of solar wind energetic proton beams produced by magnetic reconnection in the near-Sun heliospheric current sheet

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tai-Duc Phan ◽  
J. L. Verniero ◽  
Davin E. Larson ◽  
Benoit Lavraud ◽  
Jonathan P. Eastwood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Magnetic Reconnection ◽  
Current Sheet ◽  
Heliospheric Current Sheet ◽  
Proton Beams ◽  
Energetic Proton

scholarly journals Additional acceleration of solar-wind particles in current sheets of the heliosphere

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Zharkova ◽  
O. Khabarova
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Magnetic Reconnection ◽  
Current Sheet ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Heliospheric Current Sheet ◽  
Particle Energy ◽  
Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections ◽  
Current Sheets ◽  
Particle In Cell ◽  
Wind Spacecraft

Abstract. Particles of fast solar wind in the vicinity of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) or in a front of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) often reveal very peculiar energy or velocity profiles, density distributions with double or triple peaks, and well-defined streams of electrons occurring around or far away from these events. In order to interpret the parameters of energetic particles (both ions and electrons) measured by the WIND spacecraft during the HCS crossings, a comparison of the data was carried out with 3-D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for the relevant magnetic topology (Zharkova and Khabarova, 2012). The simulations showed that all the observed particle-energy distributions, densities, ion peak velocities, electron pitch angles and directivities can be fitted with the same model if the heliospheric current sheet is in a status of continuous magnetic reconnection. In this paper we present further observations of the solar-wind particles being accelerated to rather higher energies while passing through the HCS and the evidence that this acceleration happens well before the appearance of the corotating interacting region (CIR), which passes through the spacecraft position hours later. We show that the measured particle characteristics (ion velocity, electron pitch angles and the distance at which electrons are turned from the HCS) are in agreement with the simulations of additional particle acceleration in a reconnecting HCS with a strong guiding field as measured by WIND. A few examples are also presented showing additional acceleration of solar-wind particles during their passage through current sheets formed in a front of ICMEs. This additional acceleration at the ICME current sheets can explain the anticorrelation of ion and electron fluxes frequently observed around the ICME's leading front. Furthermore, it may provide a plausible explanation of the appearance of bidirectional "strahls" (field-aligned most energetic suprathermal electrons) at the leading edge of ICMEs as energetic electrons generated during a magnetic reconnection at the ICME-front current sheet.

Solar wind double ion beams and the heliospheric current sheet

1995 ◽  
Vol 100 (A5) ◽  
pp. 7881 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Hammond ◽  
W. C. Feldman ◽  
J. L. Phillips ◽  
B. E. Goldstein ◽  
A. Balogh
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Current Sheet ◽  
Heliospheric Current Sheet ◽  
Ion Beams

scholarly journals Numerical study of the reconnection process between magnetic cloud and heliospheric current sheet

2018 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. A82
Author(s):  
Man Zhang ◽  
Yu Fen Zhou ◽  
Xue Shang Feng ◽  
Bo Li ◽  
Ming Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Reconnection ◽  
Current Sheet ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Magnetic Cloud ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Heliospheric Current Sheet ◽  
Reconnection Process ◽  
Magnetic Filed

In this paper, we have used a three-dimensional numerical magnetohydrodynamics model to study the reconnection process between magnetic cloud and heliospheric current sheet. Within a steady-state heliospheric model that gives a reasonable large-scale structure of the solar wind near solar minimum, we injected a spherical plasmoid to mimic a magnetic cloud. When the magnetic cloud moves to the heliospheric current sheet, the dynamic process causes the current sheet to become gradually thinner and the magnetic reconnection begin. The numerical simulation can reproduce the basic characteristics of the magnetic reconnection, such as the correlated/anticorrelated signatures in V and B passing a reconnection exhaust. Depending on the initial magnetic helicity of the cloud, magnetic reconnection occurs at points along the boundary of the two systems where antiparallel field lines are forced together. We find the magnetic filed and velocity in the MC have a effect on the reconnection rate, and the magnitude of velocity can also effect the beginning time of reconnection. These results are helpful in understanding and identifying the dynamic process occurring between the magnetic cloud and the heliospheric current sheet.

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