On the scale sizes of magnetic holes

Abstract

Magnetic holes are significant depressions of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) that can be found embedded in the solar wind everywhere within the heliosphere. They resemble mirror mode magnetic structures that form as a response to excess perpendicular temperatures. Magnetic holes situated at IMF discontinuities (current sheets) may also be the result of reconnection. Magnetic holes occur more often under fast solar wind conditions, and their scale sizes are known to be on the order of thousands to tens of thousands of km, determined essentially from temporal width and plasma velocity observations. So far, the scale sizes have only been estimated for the directions parallel to the respective solar wind plasma flows. In this study, we attempt to calculate the first distributions of the scale sizes for the orthogonal, flow-perpendicular directions. Therefore, we use multi-point observations of magnetic holes by the ARTEMIS spacecraft in lunar orbit. The method we use has been previously applied to plasma jets present in the magnetosheath of Earth. The knowledge of the flow-perpendicular scale sizes is important to assess the holes’ impact on planetary magnetospheres and cometary environments.