Reconnection in adjoining coronal helmet streamers
Abstract
Complex magnetic and plasma structures observed in the coronal streamer belt (Crooker et al., 1993; Woo 1994) might arise from the instabilities and evolution of multiple current sheets formed by adjoining coronal helmet streamers. Previously we examined the static triple current sheet (TCS), and found that three linearly unstable modes exist, two of which are potentially observable by the LASCO instrument onboard SOHO (Dahlburg and Karpen 1995). Here we investigate the variations created in this model by the inclusion of wake flows, which have been observed in coronal streamers. Our principal finding is that the structure of the modes is changed significantly by the Alfvénic and sub-Alfvénic wake flow, while their growth rates are not.
- Publication:
-
Advances in Space Research
- Pub Date:
- January 1997
- DOI:
- 10.1016/S0273-1177(97)00094-X
- Bibcode:
- 1997AdSpR..19.1887D
- Keywords:
-
- Solar Magnetic Field;
- Magnetic Field Reconnection;
- Solar Corona;
- Current Sheets;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Flow;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Waves;
- Wakes;
- Propagation Modes;
- Solar Physics