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Phan TD, Gosling JT, Davis MS, et al. A magnetic reconnection X-line extending more than 390 Earth radii in the solar wind. Nature. 2006;439(7073):175-8doi: 10.1038/nature04393.
Phan, T. D., Gosling, J. T., Davis, M. S., Skoug, R. M., Øieroset, M., Lin, R. P., Lepping, R. P., McComas, D. J., Smith, C. W., Reme, H., & Balogh, A. (2006). A magnetic reconnection X-line extending more than 390 Earth radii in the solar wind. Nature, 439(7073), 175-8. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04393
Phan, T D, et al. "A magnetic reconnection X-line extending more than 390 Earth radii in the solar wind." Nature vol. 439,7073 (2006): 175-8. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04393
Phan TD, Gosling JT, Davis MS, Skoug RM, Øieroset M, Lin RP, Lepping RP, McComas DJ, Smith CW, Reme H, Balogh A. A magnetic reconnection X-line extending more than 390 Earth radii in the solar wind. Nature. 2006 Jan 12;439(7073):175-8. doi: 10.1038/nature04393. PMID: 16407946.
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Nature. 2006 Jan 12;439(7073):175-8. doi: 10.1038/nature04393.

A magnetic reconnection X-line extending more than 390 Earth radii in the solar wind.

Nature

T D Phan, J T Gosling, M S Davis, R M Skoug, M Øieroset, R P Lin, R P Lepping, D J McComas, C W Smith, H Reme, A Balogh

Affiliations

  1. Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. [email protected]

PMID: 16407946 DOI: 10.1038/nature04393

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection in a current sheet converts magnetic energy into particle energy, a process that is important in many laboratory, space and astrophysical contexts. 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. Frequent reports of small-scale flux ropes and flow channels associated with reconnection 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 390R(E) (or 2.5 x 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.

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