Numerical study of magnetic reconnection process near interplanetary current sheet

Abstract

The third order accurate upwind compact difference scheme has been applied to the numerical study of the magnetic reconnection process possibly occurring near the interplanetary current sheet, under the framework of the two-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Our results here show that the driven reconnection near the current sheet can occur within 10–30 min for the interplanetary high magnetic Reynolds number,RM=2 000– 10 000, the stable magnetic reconnection structure can be formed in hour-order of magnitude, and there are some basic properties such as the multiple X-line reconnections, vortical velocity structures, filament current systems, splitting and collapse of the high-density plasma bulk. These results are helpful in understanding and identifying the magnetic reconnection phenomena near the interplanetary current sheets.