Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection

Several recent studies suggest that magnetic reconnection is able to erode substantial amounts of the outer magnetic flux of interplanetary magnetic clouds (MCs) as they propagate in the heliosphere. We quantify and provide a broader context to this process, starting from 263 tabulated interplanetar...

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Autor principal:	Dasso, Sergio Ricardo
Publicado:	2015
Materias:	Coronal mass ejection Magnetic cloud Magnetic flux rope Magnetic reconnection Solar wind
Acceso en línea:	https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_21699380_v_n_p_Ruffenach http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_21699380_v_n_p_Ruffenach
Aporte de:	Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA) de Universidad de Buenos Aires

id	paper:paper_21699380_v_n_p_Ruffenach
record_format	dspace
spelling	paper:paper_21699380_v_n_p_Ruffenach2023-06-08T16:34:51Z Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection Dasso, Sergio Ricardo Coronal mass ejection Magnetic cloud Magnetic flux rope Magnetic reconnection Solar wind Several recent studies suggest that magnetic reconnection is able to erode substantial amounts of the outer magnetic flux of interplanetary magnetic clouds (MCs) as they propagate in the heliosphere. We quantify and provide a broader context to this process, starting from 263 tabulated interplanetary coronal mass ejections, including MCs, observed over a time period covering 17years and at a distance of 1AU from the Sun with Wind (1995-2008) and the two STEREO (2009-2012) spacecraft. Based on several quality factors, including careful determination of the MC boundaries and main magnetic flux rope axes, an analysis of the azimuthal flux imbalance expected from erosion by magnetic reconnection was performed on a subset of 50 MCs. The results suggest that MCs may be eroded at the front or at rear and in similar proportions, with a significant average erosion of about 40% of the total azimuthal magnetic flux. We also searched for in situ signatures of magnetic reconnection causing erosion at the front and rear boundaries of these MCs. Nearly ~30% of the selected MC boundaries show reconnection signatures. Given that observations were acquired only at 1AU and that MCs are large-scale structures, this finding is also consistent with the idea that erosion is a common process. Finally, we studied potential correlations between the amount of eroded azimuthal magnetic flux and various parameters such as local magnetic shear, Alfvén speed, and leading and trailing ambient solar wind speeds. However, no significant correlations were found, suggesting that the locally observed parameters at 1AU are not likely to be representative of the conditions that prevailed during the erosion which occurred during propagation from the Sun to 1AU. Future heliospheric missions, and in particular Solar Orbiter or Solar Probe Plus, will be fully geared to answer such questions. ©2014. American Geophysical Union. Fil:Dasso, S. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. 2015 https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_21699380_v_n_p_Ruffenach http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_21699380_v_n_p_Ruffenach
institution	Universidad de Buenos Aires
institution_str	I-28
repository_str	R-134
collection	Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)
topic	Coronal mass ejection Magnetic cloud Magnetic flux rope Magnetic reconnection Solar wind
spellingShingle	Coronal mass ejection Magnetic cloud Magnetic flux rope Magnetic reconnection Solar wind Dasso, Sergio Ricardo Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection
topic_facet	Coronal mass ejection Magnetic cloud Magnetic flux rope Magnetic reconnection Solar wind
description	Several recent studies suggest that magnetic reconnection is able to erode substantial amounts of the outer magnetic flux of interplanetary magnetic clouds (MCs) as they propagate in the heliosphere. We quantify and provide a broader context to this process, starting from 263 tabulated interplanetary coronal mass ejections, including MCs, observed over a time period covering 17years and at a distance of 1AU from the Sun with Wind (1995-2008) and the two STEREO (2009-2012) spacecraft. Based on several quality factors, including careful determination of the MC boundaries and main magnetic flux rope axes, an analysis of the azimuthal flux imbalance expected from erosion by magnetic reconnection was performed on a subset of 50 MCs. The results suggest that MCs may be eroded at the front or at rear and in similar proportions, with a significant average erosion of about 40% of the total azimuthal magnetic flux. We also searched for in situ signatures of magnetic reconnection causing erosion at the front and rear boundaries of these MCs. Nearly ~30% of the selected MC boundaries show reconnection signatures. Given that observations were acquired only at 1AU and that MCs are large-scale structures, this finding is also consistent with the idea that erosion is a common process. Finally, we studied potential correlations between the amount of eroded azimuthal magnetic flux and various parameters such as local magnetic shear, Alfvén speed, and leading and trailing ambient solar wind speeds. However, no significant correlations were found, suggesting that the locally observed parameters at 1AU are not likely to be representative of the conditions that prevailed during the erosion which occurred during propagation from the Sun to 1AU. Future heliospheric missions, and in particular Solar Orbiter or Solar Probe Plus, will be fully geared to answer such questions. ©2014. American Geophysical Union.
author	Dasso, Sergio Ricardo
author_facet	Dasso, Sergio Ricardo
author_sort	Dasso, Sergio Ricardo
title	Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection
title_short	Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection
title_full	Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection
title_fullStr	Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection
title_full_unstemmed	Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection
title_sort	statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection
publishDate	2015
url	https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_21699380_v_n_p_Ruffenach http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_21699380_v_n_p_Ruffenach
work_keys_str_mv	AT dassosergioricardo statisticalstudyofmagneticclouderosionbymagneticreconnection
_version_	1768546419654787072

Statistical study of magnetic cloud erosion by magnetic reconnection

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