Issue |
A&A
Volume 376, Number 1, September II 2001
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 288 - 291 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010881 | |
Published online | 15 September 2001 |
MHD simulation of the three-dimensional structure of the heliospheric current sheet
1
Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
2
Space Physics Research Laboratory, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
3
Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Corresponding author: P. L. Israelevich, peter@luna.tau.ac.il
Received:
18
April
2001
Accepted:
15
June
2001
The existence of the radial component of the electric current flowing
toward the
Sun is revealed in numerical simulation. The total
strength of the radial current is ~ A. The only way
to fulfil the electric
current continuity is to close the radial electric current by means of field-
aligned currents at the polar region of the Sun. Thus, the surface
density of the
closure current flowing along the solar surface can be estimated as
~4 A/m,
and the magnetic field produced by this current is
T, i.e. several percent of the intrinsic magnetic field of the Sun.
This seems to mean
that any treatment of the solar magnetic field generation should take into
account the heliospheric current circuit as well as the currents flowing inside
the Sun.
Key words: Sun: solar wind / Sun: magnetic fields
© ESO, 2001
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