magnetic reconnection tagged posts

(a) The trajectory of the electron #1 in the 3D velocity space. (b) A conceptual model of the noncrossing electron orbits. A noncrossing Speiser orbit (solid line) and a noncrossing regular orbit (red). They are computed in a configuration similar to the traditional Speiser orbit (dashed line) in Figure 1. (c) The velocity-space trajectory of the noncrossing Speiser orbit for y < 0 and z < 1.5.

This artist’s rendition shows the four identical MMS spacecraft flying near the sun-facing boundary of Earth’s magnetic field (blue wavy lines). The MMS mission has revealed the clearest picture yet of the process of magnetic reconnection between the magnetic fields of Earth and the sun — a driving force behind space weather, solar flares and other energetic phenomena. Credit: NASA

During a December 2013 solar flare, three NASA missions observed a current sheet form — a strong clue for explaining what initiates the flares. This animation shows four views of the flare from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA’s Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory, and JAXA/NASA’s Hinode, allowing scientists to make unprecedented measurements of its characteristics. The current sheet is a long, thin structure, especially visible in the views on the left. Those two animations depict light emitted by material with higher temperatures, so they better show the extremely hot current sheet. Credit: NASA/JAXA/SDO/STEREO/Hinode (courtesy Zhu, et al.)

The four identical spacecraft of NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission (one of which is illustrated here) fly through the boundaries of Earth’s magnetic field to study an explosive process of magnetic reconnection. Thought to be the driver behind everything from solar flares to aurora, magnetic reconnection creates a sudden reconfiguration of magnetic fields, releasing huge amounts of energy in the process. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center