Computer studies on dynamics of a large‐scale magnetic loop by the spontaneous fast reconnection model

1996 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 4172-4180 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ugai
2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 3875-3883 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ugai

Abstract. The fast reconnection mechanism, involving slow shocks and Alfvénic fast plasma jets, is most responsible for the explosive conversion of magnetic energy associated with geomagnetic substorms and solar flares. In this paper, the spontaneous fast reconnection model is applied to well-known phenomena of substorms. When the east-west width of the tail current sheet becomes 3–4 times larger than its north-south thickness, the fast reconnection mechanism can fully be established, which may lead to substorm onset. The resulting Alfvénic jet can exactly explain, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the in-situ satellite observations of the traveling compression regions (TCRs) associated with large-scale plasmoids propagating down the tail. Also, the earthward fast reconnection jet causes drastic magnetic field dipolarization, so that the sheet current ahead of the magnetic loop of closed field lines suddenly turns its direction toward the loop footpoint and a large-scale current wedge is formed according to the growth of field-aligned currents. It is demonstrated that an MHD generator arises ahead of the magnetic loop and drives the current wedge to distinctly enhance the current density in a pair of thin layers of the loop footpoint, giving rise to drastic heating in the form of two ribbons.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (S300) ◽  
pp. 239-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giannina Poletto ◽  
Alphonse C. Sterling ◽  
Stefano Pucci ◽  
Marco Romoli

AbstractBlowout jets constitute about 50% of the total number of X-ray jets observed in polar coronal holes. In these events, the base magnetic loop is supposed to blow open in what is a scaled-down representation of two-ribbon flares that accompany major coronal mass ejections (CMEs): indeed, miniature CMEs resulting from blowout jets have been observed. This raises the question of the possible contribution of this class of events to the solar wind mass and energy flux. Here we make a first crude evaluation of the mass contributed to the wind and of the energy budget of the jets and related miniature CMEs, under the assumption that small-scale events behave as their large-scale analogs. This hypothesis allows us to adopt the same relationship between jets and miniature-CME parameters that have been shown to hold in the larger-scale events, thus inferring the values of the mass and kinetic energy of the miniature CMEs, currently not available from observations. We conclude our work estimating the mass flux and the energy budget of a blowout jet, and giving a crude evaluation of the role possibly played by these events in supplying the mass and energy that feeds the solar wind.


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