Structure of the heliospheric current sheet from plasma convection in time-dependent heliospheric models

Czechowski, A.; Strumik, M.; Grygorczuk, J.; Grzędzielski, S.; Ratkiewicz, R.; Scherer, K.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200913542

Cited by 27 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…Thus, we can simply follow the flow streamlines to determine what fraction of the sector region will be carried to the northern hemisphere even though the resolution is insufficient to define the sectors. This same procedure was recently followed by Czechowski et al 2010. The white streamlines in Figure 1 show the boundary of the sector region.…”

Section: -9 -mentioning

confidence: 84%

Is the Magnetic Field in the Heliosheath Laminar or a Turbulent Sea of Bubbles?

Opher

Drake

Swisdak

et al. 2011

ApJ

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All the current global models of the heliosphere are based on the assumption that the magnetic field in the heliosheath, in the region close to the heliopause is laminar. We argue that in that region the heliospheric magnetic field is not laminar but instead consists of magnetic bubbles. We refer to it as the bubbledominated heliosheath region. Recently, we proposed that the annihilation of the "sectored" magnetic field within the heliosheath as it is compressed on its approach to the heliopause produces the anomalous cosmic rays and also energetic electrons. As a product of the annihilation of the sectored magnetic field, denselypacked magnetic islands (that further interacts to form magnetic bubbles) are produced. These magnetic islands/bubbles will be convected with the ambient flows as the sector region is carried to higher latitudes filling the heliosheath. We further argue that the magnetic islands/bubbles will develop upstream within the heliosheath. As a result, the magnetic field in the heliosheath sector region will be disordered well upstream of the heliopause. We present a 3D MHD simulation with very high numerical resolution that captures the north-south boundaries of the sector region. We show that due to the high pressure of the interstellar magnetic field a north-south asymmetry develops such that the disordered sectored region fills a large portion of the northern part of the heliosphere with a smaller extension in the southern hemisphere. We suggest that this scenario is supported by the following changes that occur around 2008 and from 2009.16 onward: a) the sudden decrease in the intensity of low energy electrons (0.02-1.5MeV) detected by Voyager 2 ; b) a sharp reduction in the intensity of fluctuations of the radial flow; and c) the dramatic differences in intensity trends between galactic cosmic ray electrons (3.8-59 MeV) at Voyager 1 and 2. We argue that these observations are a consequence of Voyager 2 leaving the sector region of disordered field during -3 -these periods and crossing into a region of unipolar laminar field.

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Section: -9 -mentioning

confidence: 84%

Is the Magnetic Field in the Heliosheath Laminar or a Turbulent Sea of Bubbles?

Opher

Drake

Swisdak

et al. 2011

ApJ

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“…In these previous works, HCS folds formed on scales of >10° in azimuth at the above distances [ Pizzo , 1994, Figure 1; Riley and Linker , 2002, Figure 3]. Large scale distortions of the HCS were also discussed in the context of global heliosphere simulations [ Czechowski et al , 2010] and simulations of the corona with foot point motion [ Lionello et al , 2006].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Disruption of a heliospheric current sheet fold

Merkin

Lyon

McGregor

et al. 2011

Geophys. Res. Lett.

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[1] We present results from a new magnetohydrodynamic model of the inner heliosphere. We focus in this study on Carrington rotation 1892 which occurred during solar minimum, and simulate the solar wind and heliospheric magnetic field from 0.1 to 2 AU. We demonstrate the development of small scale (∼1°× 1°× 1 solar radius) structure, such as folds and ripples, on the surface of the heliospheric current sheet. In particular, we analyze the evolution of a current sheet fold forming by ∼1 AU, significantly narrowing by ∼1.5 AU (∼1°i n width), and quickly disrupting afterwards. The disruption constitutes a process whereby the lower part of the current sheet fold separates from the main surface and, on a heliocentric spherical surface, appears as an island of outward polarity in the sea of the field of inward polarity. We show that this process is associated with non-radial motion of plasma and magnetic field induced inside a stream interaction region. In addition, we discuss evidence of magnetic reconnection in our simulation that involves flux tubes in the vicinity of the heliospheric current sheet. The simulations presented here provide a useful global 3-dimensional context for interpreting multiple current sheet crossings commonly observed by spacecraft as well as observations of magnetic reconnection in the solar wind.

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“…Borovikov et al (2011) proposed another approach to track the HCS surface. Other approaches to track the HMF polarity were used in Czechowski et al (2010); Alexashov et al (2016). In the approach of Borovikov et al (2011), the HMF is assumed unipolar and a special, level-set equation is solved to propagate the HCS surface from the inner boundary towards the HP.…”

Section: Magnetic Field Dissipation In the Ihsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-dimensional Features of the Outer Heliosphere Due to Coupling between the Interstellar and Heliospheric Magnetic Field. V. The Bow Wave, Heliospheric Boundary Layer, Instabilities, and Magnetic Reconnection

Pogorelov

Heerikhuisen

Roytershteyn

et al. 2017

ApJ

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The heliosphere is formed due to interaction between the solar wind (SW) and local interstellar medium (LISM). The shape and position of the heliospheric boundary, the heliopause, in space depend on the parameters of interacting plasma flows. The interplay between the asymmetrizing effect of the interstellar magnetic field and charge exchange between ions and neutral atoms plays an important role in the SW-LISM interaction. By performing three-dimensional, MHD plasma / kinetic neutral atom simulations, we determine the width of the outer heliosheath -the LISM plasma region affected by the presence of the heliosphere -and analyze quantitatively the distributions in front of the heliopause.It is shown that charge exchange modifies the LISM plasma to such extent that the contribution of a shock transition to the total variation of plasma parameters becomes small even if the LISM velocity exceeds the fast magnetosonic speed in the unperturbed medium. By performing adaptive mesh refinement simulations, we show that a distinct boundary layer of decreased plasma density and enhanced magnetic field should be observed on the interstellar side of the heliopause. We show that this behavior is in agreement with the plasma oscillations of increasing frequency observed by the plasma wave instrument onboard Voyager 1. We also demonstrate that Voyager observations in the inner heliosheath between the heliospheric termination shock and the heliopause are consistent with dissipation of the heliospheric magnetic field. The choice of LISM parameters in this analysis is based on the simulations that fit observations of energetic neutral atoms performed by IBEX.

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Structure of the heliospheric current sheet from plasma convection in time-dependent heliospheric models

Cited by 27 publications

References 43 publications

Is the Magnetic Field in the Heliosheath Laminar or a Turbulent Sea of Bubbles?

Is the Magnetic Field in the Heliosheath Laminar or a Turbulent Sea of Bubbles?

Disruption of a heliospheric current sheet fold

Three-dimensional Features of the Outer Heliosphere Due to Coupling between the Interstellar and Heliospheric Magnetic Field. V. The Bow Wave, Heliospheric Boundary Layer, Instabilities, and Magnetic Reconnection

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