Cargando…

Direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection

Kinetic effects resulting from the two-fluid physics play a crucial role in the fast collisionless reconnection, which is a process to explosively release massive energy stored in magnetic fields in space and astrophysical plasmas. In-situ observations in the Earth's magnetosphere provide solid...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Xu, Xiaojun, Wang, Yi, Wei, Fengsi, Feng, Xueshang, Deng, Xiaohua, Ma, Yonghui, Zhou, Meng, Pang, Ye, Wong, Hon-Cheng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4308709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25628139
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08080
_version_ 1782354570404429824
author Xu, Xiaojun
Wang, Yi
Wei, Fengsi
Feng, Xueshang
Deng, Xiaohua
Ma, Yonghui
Zhou, Meng
Pang, Ye
Wong, Hon-Cheng
author_facet Xu, Xiaojun
Wang, Yi
Wei, Fengsi
Feng, Xueshang
Deng, Xiaohua
Ma, Yonghui
Zhou, Meng
Pang, Ye
Wong, Hon-Cheng
author_sort Xu, Xiaojun
collection PubMed
description Kinetic effects resulting from the two-fluid physics play a crucial role in the fast collisionless reconnection, which is a process to explosively release massive energy stored in magnetic fields in space and astrophysical plasmas. In-situ observations in the Earth's magnetosphere provide solid consistence with theoretical models on the point that kinetic effects are required in the collisionless reconnection. However, all the observations associated with solar wind reconnection have been analyzed in the context of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) although a lot of solar wind reconnection exhausts have been reported. Because of the absence of kinetic effects and substantial heating, whether the reconnections are still ongoing when they are detected in the solar wind remains unknown. Here, by dual-spacecraft observations, we report a solar wind reconnection with clear Hall magnetic fields. Its corresponding Alfvenic electron outflow jet, derived from the decouple between ions and electrons, is identified, showing direct evidence for kinetic effects that dominate the collisionless reconnection. The turbulence associated with the exhaust is a kind of background solar wind turbulence, implying that the reconnection generated turbulence has not much developed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4308709
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Nature Publishing Group
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-43087092015-02-09 Direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection Xu, Xiaojun Wang, Yi Wei, Fengsi Feng, Xueshang Deng, Xiaohua Ma, Yonghui Zhou, Meng Pang, Ye Wong, Hon-Cheng Sci Rep Article Kinetic effects resulting from the two-fluid physics play a crucial role in the fast collisionless reconnection, which is a process to explosively release massive energy stored in magnetic fields in space and astrophysical plasmas. In-situ observations in the Earth's magnetosphere provide solid consistence with theoretical models on the point that kinetic effects are required in the collisionless reconnection. However, all the observations associated with solar wind reconnection have been analyzed in the context of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) although a lot of solar wind reconnection exhausts have been reported. Because of the absence of kinetic effects and substantial heating, whether the reconnections are still ongoing when they are detected in the solar wind remains unknown. Here, by dual-spacecraft observations, we report a solar wind reconnection with clear Hall magnetic fields. Its corresponding Alfvenic electron outflow jet, derived from the decouple between ions and electrons, is identified, showing direct evidence for kinetic effects that dominate the collisionless reconnection. The turbulence associated with the exhaust is a kind of background solar wind turbulence, implying that the reconnection generated turbulence has not much developed. Nature Publishing Group 2015-01-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4308709/ /pubmed/25628139 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08080 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Xu, Xiaojun
Wang, Yi
Wei, Fengsi
Feng, Xueshang
Deng, Xiaohua
Ma, Yonghui
Zhou, Meng
Pang, Ye
Wong, Hon-Cheng
Direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection
title Direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection
title_full Direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection
title_fullStr Direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection
title_full_unstemmed Direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection
title_short Direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection
title_sort direct evidence for kinetic effects associated with solar wind reconnection
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4308709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25628139
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08080
work_keys_str_mv AT xuxiaojun directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection
AT wangyi directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection
AT weifengsi directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection
AT fengxueshang directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection
AT dengxiaohua directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection
AT mayonghui directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection
AT zhoumeng directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection
AT pangye directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection
AT wonghoncheng directevidenceforkineticeffectsassociatedwithsolarwindreconnection