A statistical survey of reconnection exhausts in the solar wind based on the Riemannian decay of current sheets

Abstract

AbstractWe present a statistical study of the magnetic reconnection exhausts in solar wind. Observational data are compared with the analytical model based on the Riemann analysis of tangential discontinuity decay forced by finite X‐line reconnection of skewed magnetic fields. Statistical analysis is based on 51 events of the solar wind reconnection listed in Phan et al. (2009). The best agreement of the observed and analytically predicted values is achieved for the rotational angle of the tangential magnetic field component with correlation coefficient reaching the value of 0.97. The lowest correlation coefficient of 0.87 is obtained for the exhaust flow plasma temperature. It is found that proton temperature increases at the exhaust boundary while electron temperature stays unchanged. This may indicate that heating and acceleration processes operate on the proton scale. Exhaust boundaries are identified as tangential discontinuities, except one particular event, where Alfvén discontinuity and slow shock were detected instead. Hence, the impulsive reconnection may be supposed in that case rather than steady state one. Exhaust regions extending up to 690RE, registered in some observations, do not necessarily imply X‐lines of similar length. They could be explained alternatively by reconnection of skewed magnetic fields. The numerical modeling of the interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) propagating in the solar wind reveals that the resistance force, impeding the ICME motion, may be reduced significantly (three times in our simulations) by means of the magnetic reconnection at the leading edge. Thus, reconnection may substantially increase ICME velocity and travel distance.