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Magnetic reconnection ahead of a coronal mass ejection
Author(s) -
McComas D. J.,
Gosling J. T.,
Hammond C. M.,
Moldwin M. B.,
Phillips J. L.,
Forsyth R. J.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/94gl01077
Subject(s) - physics , magnetic reconnection , coronal mass ejection , interplanetary spaceflight , astrophysics , solar wind , halo , solar flare , interplanetary magnetic field , heliosphere , field line , nanoflares , electron , flux (metallurgy) , magnetic field , astronomy , geophysics , nuclear physics , galaxy , materials science , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
On 29 November 1990 the Ulysses spacecraft passed through a series of interplanetary structures which suggest that reconnection had occurred on open field lines ahead of a coronal mass ejection (CME), changing the magnetic topology of the upstream region. We observe in sequence 1) a heat flux dropout, 2) a region of counterstreaming halo electrons which does not appear to be a CME, and 3) a region of counterstreaming halo electrons which is a CME. We suggest an interpretation in which upstream of the CME Ulysses passed first through a region magnetically disconnected from the Sun and then through a region magnetically connected back to the solar corona at both ends, both of which were created by reconnection of open field lines ahead of the CME. Such reconnection provides a method for producing a heat flux dropout / counterstreaming suprathermal electron pair of signatures in interplanetary space that has not been previously described.