Journal
PLASMA PHYSICS AND CONTROLLED FUSION
Volume 56, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0741-3335/56/6/064008
Keywords
solar wind; magnetic islands; reconnection
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Funding
- NASA grants [NNX12AH43G, NNX08AO84G]
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences [1102527] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- NASA [NNX12AH43G, 95695, NNX08AO84G, 19725] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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We report the first observation consistent with a magnetic reconnection generated magnetic island at a solar wind current sheet that was observed on 10 June 2012 by the two ARTEMIS satellites and the upstream WIND satellite. The evidence consists of a core magnetic field within the island which is formed by enhanced Hall magnetic fields across a solar wind reconnection exhaust. The core field at ARTEMIS displays a local dip coincident with a peak plasma density enhancement and a locally slower exhaust speed which differentiates it from a regular solar wind exhaust crossing. Further indirect evidence of magnetic island formation is presented in the form of a tripolar Hall magnetic field, which is supported by an observed electron velocity shear, and plasma density depletion regions which are in general agreement with multiple reconnection X-line signatures at the same current sheet on the basis of predicted signatures of magnetic islands as generated by a kinetic reconnection simulation for solar wind-like conditions. The combined ARTEMIS and WIND observations of tripolar Hall magnetic fields across the same exhaust and Grad-Shrafranov reconstructions of the magnetic field suggest that an elongated magnetic island was encountered which displayed a 4R(E) normal width and a 43R(E) extent along the exhaust between two neighboring X-lines.
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