Orals

Recent studies show that current sheets and magnetic islands observed in the solar wind play a significant role in local particle acceleration to keV-MeV energies, and the resulting energetic particle enhancements constitute a hazardous condition in the interplanetary and near-Earth space. Current sheets of various scales are self-organized structures that are ubiquitously formed in cosmic and laboratory plasmas owing to a change in the magnetic field direction, at strong discontinuities, and as a result of turbulence. Not surprisingly, dynamic processes occurring at current sheets and in their vicinity have a striking similarity in different plasmas. Current sheets experience magnetic reconnection that in turn leads to many subsequent nonlinear effects, triggering the development of a turbulent cascade, the formation of magnetic islands or flux ropes, and local acceleration of charged particles. These processes are observed from the corona to the outer heliosphere and may often be described by the same equations. They also can be linked physically as some of the structures originating from the corona survive and develop further in the solar wind. Meantime, these processes are usually studied by different scientific teams in independent ways.
This interdisciplinary session will bring together specialists from different plasma physics communities, bridging gaps in the understanding of the origin of coherent structures and the development of dynamical processes associated with current sheets. We invite researchers to share recent results of their theoretical studies, modelling and observations. Contributions that discuss and compare different mechanisms of local particle energization that occur in laboratory plasmas, the solar corona, magnetospheres of planets and the heliosphere are especially welcome. Furthermore, research results within the framework of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) international team - 405 on 'Current Sheets, Turbulence, Structures and Particle Acceleration in the Heliosphere' (http://www.issibern.ch/teams/structpartaccel/index.html) will also be presented at this session.