Abstract
In situ spacecraft data on the solar wind show events identified as magnetic reconnection with wide outflows and extended “ lines,” times ion scales. To understand the role of turbulence at these scales, we make a case study of an inertial-range reconnection event in a magnetohydrodynamic simulation. We observe stochastic wandering of field lines in space, breakdown of standard magnetic flux freezing due to Richardson dispersion, and a broadened reconnection zone containing many current sheets. The coarse-grain magnetic geometry is like large-scale reconnection in the solar wind, however, with a hyperbolic flux tube or apparent line extending over integral length scales.
- Received 1 March 2015
- Corrected 10 July 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.025001
© 2015 American Physical Society
Corrections
10 July 2015