Premium
Coincidence of heliospheric current sheet and stream interface: Implications for the origin and evolution of the solar wind
Author(s) -
Huang Jia,
Liu Yong C.M.,
Klecker Berndt,
Chen Yao
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2015ja021729
Subject(s) - solar wind , heliospheric current sheet , physics , plasma , computational physics , astrophysics , boundary (topology) , interplanetary magnetic field , current (fluid) , current sheet , geophysics , magnetohydrodynamics , nuclear physics , thermodynamics , mathematical analysis , mathematics
In general, the heliospheric current sheet (HCS), which defines the boundary of sunward and antisunward magnetic field, is encased by the slow solar wind. The stream interface (SI) represents the boundary between the solar wind plasmas of different origin and/or characteristics. According to earlier studies using data of low time resolution, the SI and HCS get closer further away from the Sun, and the two structures coincide with each other around 5 AU. In this study, we use STEREO data of a much higher time resolution to reveal an unusual case where the SI and HCS are coincident near 1 AU and separated from the so‐called true sector boundary (TSB) at which the suprathermal electrons change their relative propagation directions. Preliminary analysis suggests that the closed loops in pseudostreamers continually have interchange reconnection with the open‐field lines that lead them, resulting not only in the coincidence of HCS and SI but also in the separation of the TSB from the HCS/SI. We therefore conclude that the interchange reconnection plays an important role in the evolution of slow solar wind.