Configuration of a Magnetic Cloud From Solar Orbiter and Wind Spacecraft In-situ Measurements

Qiang Hu,Edward Lu,Wen He,Lingling Zhao

doi:10.3389/fphy.2021.706056

Abstract

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) represent one type of the major eruption from the Sun. Their interplanetary counterparts, the interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs), are the direct manifestations of these structures when they propagate into the heliosphere and encounter one or more observing spacecraft. The ICMEs generally exhibit a set of distinctive signatures from thein-situspacecraft measurements. A particular subset of ICMEs, the so-called Magnetic Clouds (MCs), is more uniquely defined and has been studied for decades, based onin-situmagnetic field and plasma measurements. By utilizing the latest multiple spacecraft measurements and analysis tools, we report a detailed study of the internal magnetic field configuration of an MC event observed by both the Solar Orbiter (SO) and Wind spacecraft in the solar wind near the Sun-Earth line. Both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models are applied to reveal the flux rope configurations of the MC. Various geometrical as well as physical parameters are derived and found to be similar within error estimates for the two methods. These results quantitatively characterize the coherent MC flux rope structure crossed by the two spacecraft along different paths. The implication for the radial evolution of this MC event is also discussed.

Highlights

Magnetic clouds (MCs) represent an important type of space plasma structures observed by in-situ spacecraft missions in the solar wind
We have examined one MC event in the solar wind by using the in-situ spacecraft measurements from both the Wind and SO missions located at heliocentric distances ∼ 1 and
Such an interpretation is supported by the analysis result that the combined correlation coefficients for the GS reconstruction result and the Freidberg solution fitting result are 0.95 and 0.96, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Magnetic clouds (MCs) represent an important type of space plasma structures observed by in-situ spacecraft missions in the solar wind. They have been first identified in the in-situ spacecraft measurements of magnetic field and plasma parameters, and have been studied for decades, based on heliospheric mission datasets [1,2,3,4]. These include the earlier missions such as the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP), Helios, and Voyager missions. During 19–23 May 2007, the newly launched twin STEREO spacecraft, Ahead

Results

Discussion

Conclusion