EGU21-2865
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2865
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Magnetic Reconnection in the Corona as a Source of Switchbacks in the Solar Wind

James Drake1, Oleksiy Agapitov2, Marc Swisdak1, Sam Badman2, Stuart Bale2, Timothy Horbury3, Justin Kasper4, Robert MacDowal5, Forrest Mozer2, Tai Phan2, Marc Pulupa2, Adam Szabo5, and Marco Velli6
James Drake et al.
  • 1University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA (drake@umd.edu)
  • 2University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
  • 3Imperial College, London, UK
  • 4University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  • 5Code 695 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
  • 6UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

The observations from the Parker Solar Probe during the first
perihelion revealed large numbers of local reversals in the radial
component of the magnetic field with associated velocity spikes. Since
the spacecraft was magnetically connected to a coronal hole during the
closest approach to the sun, one possible source of these spikes is
magnetic reconnection between the open field lines in the coronal hole
and an adjacent region of closed flux. Reconnection in a low beta
environment characteristic of the corona is expected to be bursty
rather than steady and is therefore capable of producing large numbers
of magnetic flux ropes with local reversals of the radial magnetic
field that can propagate outward large radial distances from the
sun. Flux ropes with a strong guide field produce signatures
consistent with the PSP observations. We have carried out simulations
of "interchange" reconnection in the corona and have explored the
local structure of flux ropes embedded within the expanding solar
wind. We have first established that traditional interchange
reconnection cannot produce the switchbacks since bent field lines
generated in the corona quickly straighten. The simulations have been
extended to the regime dominated by the production of multiple flux
ropes and we have established that flux ropes are injected into the
local solar wind. Local simulations of reconnection are also being
carried out to explore the structure of flux ropes embedded in the
solar wind for comparison with observations. Evidence is presented
that flux rope merging may be ongoing and might lead to the high
aspect ratio of the switchback structures measured in the solar wind.

How to cite: Drake, J., Agapitov, O., Swisdak, M., Badman, S., Bale, S., Horbury, T., Kasper, J., MacDowal, R., Mozer, F., Phan, T., Pulupa, M., Szabo, A., and Velli, M.: Magnetic Reconnection in the Corona as a Source of Switchbacks in the Solar Wind, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2865, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2865, 2021.

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