Magnetic Reconnection and Intermittent Turbulence in the Solar Wind

A statistical relationship between magnetic reconnection, current sheets and intermittent turbulence is reported for the first time using in-situ solar wind measurements from the Wind spacecraft at 1 AU. We find Petschek-like reconnection exhausts and currents sheets are concentrated in spatially inhomogeneous rare large amplitude fluctuations, such that 87-92% and 9-10% respectively are located within the most intermittent 1% of turbulent fluctuations. While most current sheets do not appear to be undergoing reconnection, the most intermittent have an increased likelihood of being reconnection sites. Hence, there is evidence for a hierarchy of intermittent structures that are increasingly linked to current sheets, which in turn are ever more associated with magnetic reconnection. These results could have far reaching implications for non-uniform dissipation in all turbulent plasmas.