Analysis of time-dependent reconnection in compressible plasmas

Time-dependent Petschek-type reconnection, including moving shock waves and discontinuities in a compressible plasma, is studied. Reconnection is initiated by a dissipative electric field pulse along a reconnection line, and generates nonlinear perturbations propagating along an initial current shee...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research 1998-06, Vol.103 (A6), p.11
Main Authors: Semenov, Vladimir S, Drobysh, Oxana A, Heyn, Martin F
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Time-dependent Petschek-type reconnection, including moving shock waves and discontinuities in a compressible plasma, is studied. Reconnection is initiated by a dissipative electric field pulse along a reconnection line, and generates nonlinear perturbations propagating along an initial current sheet. The induced linear wave perturbations in the adjacent half-spaces are obtained analytically in the form of a convolution integral. The results are evaluated for typical dayside magnetopause parameters and presented for comparison with observations of dayside reconnection events. (Author)
ISSN:0148-0227