Flux rope and dynamics of the heliospheric current sheet

V. Réville; N. Fargette; A. P. Rouillard; B. Lavraud; M. Velli; A. Strugarek; S. Parenti; A. S. Brun; C. Shi; A. Kouloumvakos; N. Poirier; R. F. Pinto; P. Louarn; A. Fedorov; C. J. Owen; V. Génot; T. S. Horbury; R. Laker; H. O’Brien; V. Angelini; E. Fauchon-Jones; J. C. Kasper

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202142381

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Volume 659 (March 2022)

A&A, 659 (2022) A110

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Issue		A&A Volume 659, March 2022


Article Number		A110
Number of page(s)		14
Section		The Sun and the Heliosphere
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142381
Published online		15 March 2022

A&A 659, A110 (2022)

Study of the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter conjunction of June 2020

V. Réville¹, N. Fargette¹, A. P. Rouillard¹, B. Lavraud²^,1, M. Velli³, A. Strugarek⁴, S. Parenti⁵, A. S. Brun⁴, C. Shi³, A. Kouloumvakos¹, N. Poirier¹, R. F. Pinto⁴, P. Louarn¹, A. Fedorov¹, C. J. Owen⁶, V. Génot¹, T. S. Horbury⁷, R. Laker⁷, H. O’Brien⁷, V. Angelini⁷, E. Fauchon-Jones⁷ and J. C. Kasper⁸

¹ IRAP, Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, CNRS, CNES, Toulouse, France
e-mail: victor.reville@irap.omp.eu
² Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Pessac, France
³ UCLA Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, USA
⁴ Département d’Astrophysique/AIM, CEA/IRFU, CNRS/INSU, Univ. Paris-Saclay & Univ. de Paris, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁵ Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, 91405 Orsay, France
⁶ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6NT, UK
⁷ Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK
⁸ BWX Technologies, Inc, Washington, D.C., 20001, USA

Received: 6 October 2021
Accepted: 13 December 2021

Abstract

Context. Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe jointly observed the solar wind for the first time in June 2020, capturing data from very different solar wind streams: calm, Alfvénic wind and also highly dynamic large-scale structures.

Context. Our aim is to understand the origin and characteristics of the highly dynamic solar wind observed by the two probes, particularly in the vicinity of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS).

Methods. We analyzed the plasma data obtained by Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter in situ during the month of June 2020. We used the Alfvén-wave turbulence magnetohydrodynamic solar wind model WindPredict-AW and we performed two 3D simulations based on ADAPT solar magnetograms for this period.

Results. We show that the dynamic regions measured by both spacecraft are pervaded by flux ropes close to the HCS. These flux ropes are also present in the simulations, forming at the tip of helmet streamers, that is, at the base of the heliospheric current sheet. The formation mechanism involves a pressure-driven instability followed by a fast tearing reconnection process. We further characterize the 3D spatial structure of helmet streamer born flux ropes, which appears in the simulations to be related to the network of quasi-separatrices.

Key words: solar wind / magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) / magnetic reconnection / methods: numerical / methods: data analysis

Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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