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Observational evidence for self-generation of small-scale magnetic flux ropes from intermittent solar wind turbulence
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- We present unique {and additional} observational evidence for the self-generation of small-scale coherent magnetic flux rope structures in the solar wind. Such structures with durations between 9 and 361 minutes are identified from Wind in-situ spacecraft measurements through the Grad-Shafranov (GS) reconstruction approach. The event occurrence counts are on the order of 3,500 per year on average and have a clear solar cycle dependence. We build a database of small-scale magnetic flux ropes from twenty-year worth of Wind spacecraft data. We show a power-law distribution of the wall-to-wall time corresponding well to the inertial range turbulence, which agrees with relevant observations and numerical simulation results. We also provide the axial current density distribution from the GS-based observational analysis, which yields a non-Gaussian probability density function consistent with numerical simulation results.<br />Comment: To appear in ApJL
- Subjects :
- Physics - Space Physics
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1801.01771
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aaa3d7