Bulletin of the American Physical Society
64th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics
Volume 67, Number 15
Monday–Friday, October 17–21, 2022; Spokane, Washington
Session NP11: Poster Session V: In-Person, Hall A (9:30-11:00am) and Virtual Poster Presentations (11:15am-12:30pm)
MFE: Stellerators
HED: High Energy Density
BEAMS: Short Pulse Laser Plasmas
HED: Short Pulse Laser Plasma
SPACE: Space Plasmas
9:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Room: Exhibit Hall A and Online
Abstract: NP11.00146 : Interchange magnetic reconnection within coronal holes powers the solar wind*
Presenter:
James F Drake
(University of Maryland, College Park)
Authors:
James F Drake
(University of Maryland, College Park)
Stuart Bale
(U. C. Berkeley)
Michael McManus
(U. C. Berkeley)
Davin Larson
(U. C. Berkeley)
Michael M Swisdak
(University of Maryland, College Park)
Marco C Velli
(University of California, Los Angeles)
Collaboration:
Parker Solar Probe
The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) magnetic field data in the solar wind
close to the sun has revealed that the periodicity of bursts of
switchbacks are linked to the spatial periodicity of the magnetic
field at the surface of the sun. The observations point to reconnection between
open and closed magnetic flux in coronal holes (interchange
reconnection) as the driver of switchbacks. The corresponding periodic
enhancements in plasma pressure, wind speed, alpha abundance and
energetic ions further suggest that interchange reconnection is the
fundamental source of energy that drives these bursts and the resulting fast solar wind. We use
the PSP data along with the basic characteristics of reconnection to
deduce the local properties of interchange reconnection near the solar
surface, including the characteristic strength of the reconnecting
magnetic, the ambient density, the rate of reconnection and associated
rate of energy release. An important conclusion of the analysis is
that coronal interchange reconnection is in the collisionless regime
and that the energy released by interchange reconnection is sufficient
to drive the wind. Analytical estimates are supported by
particle-in-cell simulations of interchange reconnection that
establish that the structure of reconnection exhausts match PSP
velocity measurements. The spectra of energetic protons and alpha particles
from the simulations, which take the form of powerlaws at high energy,
also match the observations by the PSP.
*Supported by NASA and the NSF.
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