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Generation of field‐aligned currents and Alfvén waves by 3D magnetic reconnection
Author(s) -
Ma Z. W.,
Lee L. C.,
Otto A.
Publication year - 1995
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 - 10.1029/95gl01430
Subject(s) - physics , magnetic reconnection , current sheet , magnetohydrodynamics , magnetic field , antiparallel (mathematics) , field line , geophysics , vorticity , mechanics , vortex , quantum mechanics
We have carried out a three‐dimensional compressible MHD simulation to study the generation of field‐aligned currents (FAC's) and Alfvén waves by magnetic reconnection for locally antiparallel magnetic fields across the current sheet. Reconnection is triggered by a localized resistivity. The results indicate that both FAC's and Alfvén waves are generated by the three‐dimensional reconnection process. Two pairs of FAC's are generated on each side of current sheet. The polarities of the resulting FAC pair in the leading bulge region are opposite to those of a FAC pair in the trailing quasi‐steady region. It is further found that a large portion of the FAC's (∼40%) is located in the closed field line region. We examine the Walén relation between FAC and parallel vorticity and find that Alfvén waves are generated and propagate away from the reconnection site. We discuss the relevance of our results to the observed Region 1 FAC's at noon.