Comment on “Comparison of small‐scale flux rope magnetic properties to large‐scale magnetic clouds: Evidence for reconnection across the HCS”? by M. L. Cartwright and M. B. Moldwin

Abstract

[1] Recently Cartwright and Moldwin [2008] developed a newly semiautomated routine to identify interplanetary small-scale symmetric force-free flux ropes. Using the semi-automated routine, they examined the solar wind magnetic field and plasma data measured by Wind during 1995-2005, and identified 68 small-scale flux ropes. They presented comprehensive survey of these small-scale flux ropes, and compared them with previously published small-scale flux rope surveys and interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME)/magnetic cloud databases. Cartwright and Moldwin [2008] found that the size distribution of flux ropes in the solar wind appears to be bimodal, with majority of the events having durations of 4 h or less whereas the magnetic cloud distribution peaks between 12 and 16 h. So they suggest different source mechanisms for small- and large-scale flux ropes, respectively and attribute small flux ropes to reconnection occurring in the solar wind.