Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/16407946
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| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| lifeskim:mentions | |
| pubmed:issue |
7073
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| pubmed:dateCreated |
2006-1-12
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| pubmed:abstractText |
Magnetic reconnection in a current sheet converts magnetic energy into particle energy, a process that is important in many laboratory, space and astrophysical contexts. It is not known at present whether reconnection is fundamentally a process that can occur over an extended region in space or whether it is patchy and unpredictable in nature. Frequent reports of small-scale flux ropes and flow channels associated with reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere raise the possibility that reconnection is intrinsically patchy, with each reconnection X-line (the line along which oppositely directed magnetic field lines reconnect) extending at most a few Earth radii (R(E)), even though the associated current sheets span many tens or hundreds of R(E). Here we report three-spacecraft observations of accelerated flow associated with reconnection in a current sheet embedded in the solar wind flow, where the reconnection X-line extended at least 390R(E) (or 2.5 x 10(6) km). Observations of this and 27 similar events imply that reconnection is fundamentally a large-scale process. Patchy reconnection observed in the Earth's magnetosphere is therefore likely to be a geophysical effect associated with fluctuating boundary conditions, rather than a fundamental property of reconnection. Our observations also reveal, surprisingly, that reconnection can operate in a quasi-steady-state manner even when undriven by the external flow.
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| pubmed:commentsCorrections | |
| pubmed:language |
eng
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| pubmed:journal | |
| pubmed:status |
PubMed-not-MEDLINE
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| pubmed:month |
Jan
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| pubmed:issn |
1476-4687
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| pubmed:author | |
| pubmed:issnType |
Electronic
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| pubmed:day |
12
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| pubmed:volume |
439
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| pubmed:owner |
NLM
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| pubmed:authorsComplete |
Y
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| pubmed:pagination |
175-8
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| pubmed:year |
2006
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| pubmed:articleTitle |
A magnetic reconnection X-line extending more than 390 Earth radii in the solar wind.
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| pubmed:affiliation |
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. phan@ssl.berkeley.edu
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| pubmed:publicationType |
Journal Article
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