Dayside merging between the interplanetary and terrestrial magnetic fields couples the solar wind electric field to the Earth’s magnetosphere, increases the magnetospheric convection and results in efficient transport of solar wind energy into the magnetosphere. Subsequent reconnection of the lobe magnetic field in the magnetotail transports energy into the closed magnetic field region. Combini...

The scaling of the reconnection rate is examined in situations in which the equilibrium current supporting a reversed magnetic field has a spatial scale length that is much greater than all nonmagnetohydrodynamic ~non-MHD! kinetic scales. In this case, denoted as embedded reconnection, the narrow non-MHD region around the x-line where dissipation is important is embedded inside of a much larger...

By implementing a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code based on the CIP-MOCCT scheme, we carried out large scale MHD simulations of the solar atmosphere covering the region from the convection zone to the corona. We found that in regions with weak magnetic fields (B~100G), horizontal magnetic loops created in the upflow regions of the convection generate high frequency waves by reco...

It remains an open question how magnetic energy is rapidly released in the solar corona so as to create solar explosions such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Recent studies have confirmed that a system consisting of a flux rope embedded in a background field exhibits a catastrophic behavior, and the energy threshold at the catastrophic point may exceed the associated open fie...

Abstract The heliosphere is the bubble formed by solar wind as it interacts with interstellar medium (ISM). collimation of heliosheath (HS) flows magnetic field in heliotail into distinct north and south columns (jets) seen recent global simulations heliosphere. However, there disagreement between models about how far downtail two-lobe feature persists whether ambient ISM penetrates region two ...

[1] We report on detailed observations by the four Cluster spacecraft of magnetic reconnection and a Flux Transfer Event (FTE) at the magnetopause. We detect cold (eV) plasma at the magnetopause with two independent methods. We show that the cold ions can be essential for the electric field normal to the current sheet in the separatrix region at the edge of the FTE and for the associated accele...

The magnetospheric cusp is a funnel-shaped region where shocked solar wind plasma is able to enter the high-latitude magnetosphere via the process of magnetic reconnection. The plasma observations include various cusp signatures such as ion energy dispersions and diamagnetic effects. We present an overview analysis of cusp plasma observations at the Saturnian magnetosphere from the Cassini spac...

Interchange reconnection at the Sun, that is, reconnection between a doublyconnected field loop and singly-connected or open field line that extends to infinity, has important implications for the heliospheric magnetic flux budget. Recent work on the topic is reviewed, with emphasis on two aspects. The first is a possible heliospheric signature of interchange reconnection at the coronal hole bo...

The mass symmetry between the two species in electron-positron (pair) plasmas has interesting consequences for collisionless magnetic reconnection because the Hall term, which plays a crucial role in supporting fast reconnection in electron-proton plasmas, vanishes. We perform kinetic simulations of pair reconnection in systems of various sizes, show that it remains fast, and identify the reaso...

A Sweet-Parker-type scaling analysis for asymmetric antiparallel reconnection in which the reconnecting magnetic field strengths and plasma densities are different on opposite sides of the dissipation region is performed. Scaling laws for the reconnection rate, outflow speed, the density of the outflow, and the structure of the dissipation region are derived from first principles. These results...