Open AccessAnalysis of time‐dependent reconnection in compressible plasmas
Author(s) -
Semenov Vladimir S.,
Drobysh Oxana A.,
Heyn Martin F.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/98ja00677
Subject(s) - physics , magnetopause , magnetic reconnection , classification of discontinuities , current sheet , plasma , mechanics , magnetohydrodynamics , shock wave , electric field , computational physics , geophysics , classical mechanics , magnetosphere , mathematical analysis , mathematics , quantum mechanics
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.