The basic physics and recent progresses in theoretical and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation studies of particle acceleration in multi-island magnetic reconnection are briefly reviewed. Particle acceleration in multi-island magnetic reconnection is considered a plausible mechanism for the acceleration of energetic particles in solar flares and the solar wind. Theoretical studies have demonstrated that such a mechanism can produce the observed power-law energy distribution of energetic particles if the particle motion is sufficiently randomized in the reconnection event. However, PIC simulations seem to suggest that the first-order Fermi acceleration mechanism is unable to produce a power-law particle energy distribution function in mildly relativistic multi-island magnetic reconnections. On the other hand, while simulations of highly relativistic reconnections appear to be able to produce a power-law energy spectrum, the spectral indices obtained are generally harder than the soft power-law spectra with indices $\sim -5$ commonly observed in the solar wind and solar flare events. In addition, the plasma heating due to kinetic instabilities in 3D magnetic reconnection may "thermalize" the power-law particles, making it even more difficult for multi-island reconnections to generate a power-law spectrum. We discuss the possible reasons that may lead to these problems.
One of the key unresolved problems in the study of space plasmas is to explain the production of energetic electrons as magnetic field lines `reconnect' and release energy in a exposive manner. Recent observations suggest possible roles played by small scale magnetic islands in the reconnection region, but their precise roles and the exact mechanism of electron energization have remained unclear. Here we show that secondary islands generated in the reconnection region are indeed efficient electron accelerators. We found that, when electrons are trapped inside the islands, they are energized co…
The dynamics of magnetic reconnection in the solar current sheet (CS) is studied by high-resolution 2.5-dimensional MHD simulation. With the commence of magnetic reconnection, a number of magnetic islands are formed intermittently and move quickly upward and downward along the CS. When colliding with the semi-closed flux of flare loops, the downflow islands cause a second reconnection with a rate even comparable with that in the main CS. Though the time-integrated magnetic energy release is still dominated by the reconnection in main CS, the second reconnection can release substantial magnetic…
The acceleration of charged particles in magnetized plasmas is considered during turbulent multi-island magnetic reconnection. The particle acceleration model is constructed for an ensemble of islands which produce adiabatic compression of the particles. The model takes into account the statistical fluctuations in the compression rate experienced by the particles during their transport in the acceleration region. The evolution of the particle distribution function is described as a simultaneous first and second-order Fermi acceleration process. While the efficiency of the first-order process i…
Recently, secondary island formation due to the tearing instability of the Sweet-Parker current sheet was identified as a possible mechanism that can lead to fast reconnection (less sensitive dependence on Lundquist number $S$) both in numerical simulations using Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method [Daughton et al. 2009], as well as using resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) [Lapenta 2008; Bhattacharjee et al. 2009]. This instability is thought to appear when $S$ is greater than a certain threshold. These recent results prompt us to perform more resistive MHD simulations of a basic reconnection conf…
Energetic electrons of up to tens of MeV are created during explosive phenomena in the solar corona. While many theoretical models consider magnetic reconnection as a possible way of generating energetic electrons, the precise roles of magnetic reconnection during acceleration and heating of electrons still remain unclear. Here we show from 2D particle-in-cell simulations that coalescence of magnetic islands that naturally form as a consequence of tearing mode instability and associated magnetic reconnection leads to efficient energization of electrons. The key process is the secondary magneti…
Particle acceleration during magnetic reconnection is a long-standing topic in space, solar and astrophysical plasmas. Recent 3D particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection show that particles can leave flux ropes due to 3D field-line chaos, allowing particles to access additional acceleration sites, gain more energy through Fermi acceleration, and develop a power-law energy distribution. This 3D effect does not exist in traditional 2D simulations, where particles are artificially confined to magnetic islands due to their restricted motions across field lines. Full 3D simulations, ho…
Particle acceleration in space and astrophysical reconnection sites is an important unsolved problem in studies of magnetic reconnection. Earlier kinetic simulations have identified several acceleration mechanisms that are associated with particle drift motions. Here, we show that, for sufficient large systems, the energization processes due to particle drift motions can be described as fluid compression and shear, and that the shear energization is proportional to the pressure anisotropy of energetic particles. By analyzing results from fully kinetic simulations, we show that the compression …
Power-law distributions are a near universal feature of energetic particle spectra in the heliosphere. Anomalous Cosmic Rays (ACRs), super-Alfvénic ions in the solar wind and the hardest energetic electron spectra in flares all have energy fluxes with power-laws that depend on energy $E$ approximately as $E^{-1.5}$. We present a new model of particle acceleration in systems with a bath of merging magnetic islands that self-consistently describes the development of velocity-space anisotropy parallel and perpendicular to the local magnetic field and includes the self-consistent feedback of press…
The recent realization that Sweet-Parker current sheets are violently unstable to the secondary tearing (plasmoid) instability implies that such current sheets cannot occur in real systems. This suggests that, in order to understand the onset of magnetic reconnection, one needs to consider the growth of the tearing instability in a current layer as it is being formed. Such an analysis is performed here in the context of nonlinear resistive MHD for a generic time-dependent equilibrium representing a gradually forming current sheet. It is shown that two onset regimes, single-island and multi-isl…
Magnetic reconnection in strongly magnetized (low-beta), weakly collisional plasmas is investigated using a novel fluid-kinetic model [Zocco & Schekochihin, Phys. Plasmas 18, 102309 (2011)] which retains non-isothermal electron kinetics. It is shown that electron heating via Landau damping (linear phase mixing) is the dominant dissipation mechanism. In time, electron heating occurs after the peak of the reconnection rate; in space, it is concentrated along the separatrices of the magnetic island. For sufficiently large systems, the peak reconnection rate is $cE_{max}\approx 0.2v_AB_{y,0}$, whe…
The first detailed comparison between gyrokinetic and gyrofluid simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection has been carried out. Both the linear and nonlinear evolution of the collisionless tearing mode have been analyzed. In the linear regime, we have found a good agreement between the two approaches over the whole spectrum of linearly unstable wave numbers, both in the drift kinetic limit and for finite ion temperature. Nonlinearly, focusing on the small-$Δ'$ regime, with $Δ'$ indicating the standard tearing stability parameter, we have compared relevant observables such as the evolu…
The plasma β (the ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic pressure) of a system can have a large effect on its dynamics as high β enhances the effects of pressure anisotropies. We investigate the effects of β in a system of stacked current sheets that break up into magnetic islands due to magnetic reconnection. We find significant differences between β < 1 and β > 1. At low β growing magnetic islands are modestly elongated and become round as contraction releases magnetic stress and reduces magnetic energy. At high β the increase of the parallel pressure in contracting islands causes satu…
The effect of a parallel velocity shear on the explosive phase of a double current sheet system is investigated within the 2D resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) framework. We further explore the effect of this shear on acceleration of test particles. The general evolution pattern of the double current sheets is similar for all sub-Alfvénic shears with respect to the initial transient phase, the onset of the plasmoid instability and the final relaxation phase. We find that the theoretical scaling of the reconnection rate with shear holds if the rate is measured when the islands have a similar …
During magnetically dominated relativistic reconnection, inflowing plasma depletes the initial relativistic pressure at the x-line and collisionless plasma heating inside the diffusion region is insufficient to overcome this loss. The resulting pressure drop causes a collapse at the x-line, essentially a localization mechanism of the diffusion region necessary for fast reconnection. The extension of this low-pressure region further explains the bursty nature of anti-parallel reconnection because a once opened outflow exhaust can also collapse, which repeatedly triggers secondary tearing island…
Current sheets thinner than the ion inertial length are unstable to the tearing instability and will develop magnetic islands that grow due to magnetic reconnection. We investigate whether the growth of magnetic islands in a current sheet can continue indefinitely, or in the case of the heliosheath until reaching a neighboring current sheet, and at what rate the islands grow. We investigate the development and growth of magnetic islands using a particle-in-cell code, starting from particle noise. Performing a scaling of the growth of magnetic islands versus the system size, we find that the gr…
A stationary, two-dimensional, and non-driven antiparallel magnetic field configuration consisting of a central current film, flanked by two non-magnetic domains of electron inertial scale, resembling the Josephson model. Landau-Ginsburg conditions apply at the boundaries to the oppositely directed external magnetic fields, whose sources are located at infinity. On the microscopic level sufficiently large magnetic islands and X points form from exchange of small numbers of elementary magnetic fluxes without reference to any plasma instabilities which on these scales are purely electrostatic. T…
In an idealized system where four current channels interact in a two-dimensional periodic setting, we follow the detailed evolution of current sheets (CSs) forming in between the channels, as a result of a large-scale merging. A central X-point collapses and a gradually extending CS marks the site of continuous magnetic reconnection. Using grid-adaptive, non-relativistic, resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations, we establish that slow, near-steady Sweet-Parker reconnection transits to a chaotic, multi-plasmoid fragmented state, when the Lundquist number exceeds about ten to the fourth …
Forced magnetic reconnection, a reconnection event triggered by external perturbation, should be ubiquitous in the solar corona. Energy released during such cases can be much greater than that which was introduced by the perturbation. It is unclear how the properties of the external perturbation and the initial current sheet affect the reconnection region properties, and thereby the reconnection dynamics and energy release profile. We investigate the effect of the form of the external perturbation and initial current sheet on the evolution of the reconnection region and the energy release proc…
A detailed numerical study of magnetic reconnection in resistive MHD for very large, previously inaccessible, Lundquist numbers ($10^4\le S\le 10^8$) is reported. Large-aspect-ratio Sweet-Parker current sheets are shown to be unstable to super-Alfvénically fast formation of plasmoid (magnetic-island) chains. The plasmoid number scales as $S^{3/8}$ and the instability growth rate in the linear stage as $S^{1/4}$, in agreement with the theory by Loureiro et al. [Phys. Plasmas {\bf 14}, 100703 (2007)]. In the nonlinear regime, plasmoids continue to grow faster than they are ejected and completely…
The misalignment of the solar rotation axis and the magnetic axis of the Sun produces a periodic reversal of the Parker spiral magnetic field and the sectored solar wind. The compression of the sectors is expected to lead to reconnection in the heliosheath (HS). We present particle-in-cell simulations of the sectored HS that reflect the plasma environment along the Voyager 1 and 2 trajectories, specifically including unequal positive and negative azimuthal magnetic flux as seen in the Voyager data \citep{Burlaga03}. Reconnection proceeds on individual current sheets until islands on adjacent c…
The mechanism that accelerates particles to the energies required to produce the observed high-energy impulsive emission in solar flares is not well understood. Drake et al. (2006) proposed a mechanism for accelerating electrons in contracting magnetic islands formed by kinetic reconnection in multi-layered current sheets. We apply these ideas to sunward-moving flux ropes (2.5D magnetic islands) formed during fast reconnection in a simulated eruptive flare. A simple analytic model is used to calculate the energy gain of particles orbiting the field lines of the contracting magnetic islands in …
We propose a mechanism whereby the intense, sheet-like structures naturally formed by dynamically aligning Alfvénic turbulence are destroyed by magnetic reconnection at a scale $\hatλ_{\rm D}$, larger than the dissipation scale predicted by models of intermittent, dynamically aligning turbulence. The reconnection process proceeds in several stages: first, a linear tearing mode with $N$ magnetic islands grows and saturates, and then the $X$-points between these islands collapse into secondary current sheets, which then reconnect until the original structure is destroyed. This effectively impose…
Our understanding of the process of fast reconnection has undergone a dramatic change in the last 10 years driven, in part, by the availability of high-resolution numerical simulations that have consistently demonstrated the break-up of current sheets into magnetic islands, with reconnection rates that become independent of Lundquist number, challenging the belief that fast magnetic reconnection in flares proceeds via the Petschek mechanism that invokes pairs of slow-mode shocks connected to a compact diffusion region. The reconnection sites are too small to be resolved with images but these r…
We present a detailed analysis of the properties of magnetic reconnection at large-scale current sheets in a high cadence version of the Lynch & Edmondson (2013) 2.5D MHD simulation of sympathetic magnetic breakout eruptions from a pseudostreamer source region. We examine the resistive tearing and breakup of the three main current sheets into chains of X- and O-type null points and follow the dynamics of magnetic island growth, their merging, transit, and ejection with the reconnection exhaust. For each current sheet, we quantify the evolution of the length-to-width aspect ratio (up to $\sim$1…
System Size Dependence of Collisionless Reconnection Rate
University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center（美国国家航空航天局戈达德太空飞行中心）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）
We simulate several magnetic reconnection processes in the low solar chromosphere/photosphere, the radiation cooling, heat conduction and ambipolar diffusion are all included. Our numerical results indicate that both the high temperature($ \gtrsim 8\times10^4$~K) and low temperature($\sim 10^4$~K) magnetic reconnection events can happen in the low solar atmosphere ($100\sim600$~km above the solar surface). The plasma $β$ controlled by plasma density and magnetic fields is one important factor to decide how much the plasma can be heated up. The low temperature event is formed in a high $β$ magn…
The work extends the computational model EULAG-MHD to include Hall magnetohydrodynamics (HMHD)---important to explore physical systems undergoing fast magnetic reconnection at the order of the ion inertial length scale. Examples include solar transients along with reconnections in magnetosphere, magnetotail and laboratory plasmas. The paper documents the results of two distinct sets of implicit large-eddy simulations in the presence and absence of the Hall forcing term, initiated with an unidirectional sinusoidal magnetic field. The HMHD simulation while benchmarking the code also emphasizes t…
We present large scale 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to examine particle energization in magnetic reconnection of relativistic electron-positron (pair) plasmas. The initial configuration is set up as a relativistic Harris equilibrium without a guide field. These simulations are large enough to accommodate a sufficient number of tearing and kink modes. Contrary to the non-relativistic limit, the linear tearing instability is faster than the linear kink instability, at least in our specific parameters. We find that the magnetic energy dissipation is first facilitated by the tearing insta…
Using high resolution Cluster satellite observations, we show that the turbulent solar wind is populated by magnetic discontinuities at different scales, going from proton down to electron scales. The structure of these layers resembles the Harris equilibrium profile in plasmas. Using a multi-dimensional intermittency technique, we show that these structures are connected through the scales. Supported by numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection, we show that observations are consistent with a scenario where many current layers develop in turbulence, and where the outflow of these reconne…
We use 2.5D Magnetohydrodynamic simulations to investigate the spectral signatures of the nonlinear disruption of a tearing unstable current sheet via the generation of multiple secondary current sheets and magnetic islands. During the nonlinear phase of tearing mode evolution, there develops a regime in which the magnetic energy density shows a spectrum with a power-law close to $B(k)^2\sim k^{-0.8}$. Such an energy spectrum is found in correspondence of the neutral line, within the diffusion region of the primary current sheet, where energy is conveyed towards smaller scales via a ``recursiv…
LIRA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS（巴黎天文台，巴黎文理研究大学，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学，塞吉-蓬图瓦兹大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院天文研究所）；Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院大气物理研究所）；Institute for Humanity’s Unified Development（人类统一发展研究所）
The Maximum Particle Energy Gain During Magnetic Reconnection
University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；IREAP, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校综合相对论天体物理研究所）；The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室）；Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校物理科学与技术研究所）；Joint Space Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校联合空间科学研究所）
(abridged) Magnetic reconnection is the topological reconfiguration of the magnetic field in a plasma, accompanied by the violent release of energy and particle acceleration. Reconnection is as ubiquitous as plasmas themselves, with solar flares perhaps the most popular example. Over the last few years, the theoretical understanding of magnetic reconnection in large-scale fluid systems has undergone a major paradigm shift. The steady-state model of reconnection described by the famous Sweet-Parker (SP) theory, which dominated the field for ~50 years, has been replaced with an essentially time-…
Aims: We investigate the electron acceleration in convective electric fields of cascading magnetic reconnection in a flaring solar corona and show the resulting hard X-ray (HXR) radiation spectra caused by Bremsstrahlung for the coronal source. Methods: We perform test particle calculation of electron motions in the framework of a guiding center approximation. The electromagnetic fields and their derivatives along electron trajectories are obtained by linearly interpolating the results of high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) MHD simulations of cascading magnetic reconnection. Hard X-…
Ion-Scale Current Sheets Embedded in Reconnection Jet Shear Layer of the Near-Sun Heliospheric Current Sheet
Chungbuk National University（忠北国立大学）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；New Mexico Consortium（新墨西哥联盟）；Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）
We present the results of high resolution co-temporal and co-spatial photospheric and chromospheric observations of sunspot penumbral intrusions. The data was taken with the Swedish Solar Telescope (SST) on the Canary Islands. Time series of Ca\,II H images show a series of transient jets extending roughly 3000 km above a penumbral intrusion into the umbra. For most of the time series jets were seen along the whole length of the intruding bright filament. Some of these jets develop a clear $λ$-shaped structure, with a small loop appearing at their footpoint and lasting for around a minute. In …
The Kelvin-Hemholtz (K-H) instability in the corona EUV jet is studied via 2.5 MHD numerical simulations. The jet results from magnetic reconnection due to the interation of the new emerging magnetic field and the pre-existing magnetic field in the corona. Our results show that the Alfven Mach number along the jet is about 5-14 just before the instability occurs, and it is even higher than 14 at some local areas. During the K-H instability process, several vortex-like plasma blobs of high temperature and high density appear along the jet, and magnetic fields have also been rolled up and the ma…
We present a first-principles model of pitch-angle and energy distribution function evolution as particles are sequentially accelerated by multiple flare magnetic islands. Data from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of an eruptive flare/coronal mass ejection provide ambient conditions for the evolving particle distributions. Magnetic islands, which are created by sporadic reconnection at the self-consistently formed flare current sheet, contract and accelerate the particles. The particle distributions are evolved using rules derived in our previous work. In this investigation, we assume th…
To investigate the impact of current sheet motion on the reconnection process, we perform resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of two closely located reconnection sites which move apart from each other as reconnection develops. This simulation develops less quickly than an otherwise equivalent single perturbation simulation but eventually exhibits a higher reconnection rate. The unobstructed outflow jets are faster and longer than the outflow jets directed towards the magnetic island that forms between the two current sheets. The X-line and flow stagnation point are located near the…
In the outer heliosphere, beyond the solar wind termination shock, it is expected that the warped heliospheric current sheet forms a region of closely-packed, multiple, thin current sheets. Such a system may be subject to the ion-kinetic tearing instability, and hence generate magnetic islands and hot populations of ions associated with magnetic reconnection. Reconnection processes in this environment have important implications for local particle transport, and for particle acceleration at reconnection sites and in turbulence. We study this complex environment by means of three-dimensional hy…
In this article, we review some key aspects of a multi-wavelength flare which have essentially contributed to form a standard flare model based on the magnetic reconnection. The emphasis is given on the recent observations taken by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) on the X-ray emission originating from different regions of the coronal loops. We also briefly summarize those observations which do not seem to accommodate within the canonical flare picture and discuss the challenges for future investigations.
Magnetic reconnection in the partially ionized solar chromosphere is studied in 2.5-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations including radiative cooling and ambipolar diffusion. A Harris current sheet with and without a guide field is considered. Characteristic values of the parameters in the middle chromosphere imply a high magnetic Reynolds number of $\sim10^{6}\mbox{--}10^7$ in the present simulations. Fast magnetic reconnection then develops as a consequence of the plasmoid instability without the need to invoke anomalous resistivity enhancements. Multiple levels of the instability are …
Solar flares are accessible to a broad variety of observational methods to see and investigate the {\em magnetic reconnection} phenomenon in high-temperature strongly-magnetized plasma of the solar corona. An analysis of the topological peculiarities of magnetic field in active regions shows that the {\em topological trigger} effect is necessary to allow for in order to construct models for large eruptive flares. The topological trigger is not a resistive instability which leads to a change of the topology of the field configuration from pre- to post reconnection state. On the contrary, the to…
We present high resolution 2.5-dimensional MHD simulation results of magnetic breakout-initiated coronal mass ejections (CMEs) originating from a coronal pseudostreamer configuration. The coronal null point in the magnetic topology of pseudostreamers means the initiation of consecutive sympathetic eruptions is a natural consequence of the system's evolution. A generic source region energization process -- ideal footpoint shearing parallel to the pseudostreamer arcade polarity inversion lines -- is all that is necessary to store sufficient magnetic energy to power consecutive CME eruptions give…
Recent years have been marked by substantial changes in our understanding of magnetic turbulence and magnetic reconnection, which, in its turn induced better understanding of cosmic ray diffusion and acceleration. Current models of magnetized turbulence are no more ad hoc constructions, but numerically tested theories. In this very short review we summarize topics presented in two talks given at the conference and provide a brief sketch of the vast and rapidly developing field. We discuss how turbulence decreases the efficient mean free path of the particles in the collisionless plasmas in gal…
The process of fast magnetic reconnection supported by the formation of plasmoid chains in the high Lundquist number ($S$) regime is investigated using a recently developed adaptive finite-element magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code. We employ a two-dimensional incompressible model with a set of reduced visco-resistive MHD equations. The tilt instability setup is chosen to provide a three-step mechanism, where two curved current sheets initially form on an Alfvénic time scale followed by a second phase of super-Alfvénic growth of plasmoid chains for $S \ge S_c$ (Baty 2020). A third phase is reached…
The X8.2-class limb flare on September 10, 2017 is among the best studied solar flare events owing to its great similarity to the standard flare model and the broad coverage by multiple spacecraft and ground-based observations. These multiwavelength observations indicate that electron acceleration and transport are efficient in the reconnection and flare looptop regions. However, there lacks a comprehensive model for explaining and interpreting the multi-faceted observations. In this work, we model the electron acceleration and transport in the early impulsive phase of this flare. We solve the…
The recent observations of the anomalous cosmic ray (ACR) energy spectrum as Voyagers 1 and 2 crossed the heliospheric termination shock have called into question the conventional shock source of these energetic particles. We suggest that the sectored heliospheric magnetic field, which results from the flapping of the heliospheric current sheet, piles up as it approaches the heliopause, narrowing the current sheets that separate the sectors and triggering the onset of collisionless magnetic reconnection. Particle-in-cell simulations reveal that most of the magnetic energy is released and most …
Plasma flows with an MHD-like turbulent inertial range, such as the solar wind, require a generalization of General Magnetic Reconnection (GMR) theory. We introduce the slip-velocity source vector, which gives the rate of development of slip velocity per unit arc length of field line. The slip source vector is the ratio of the curl of the non ideal electric field in the Generalized Ohm's Law and the magnetic field strength. It diverges at magnetic nulls, unifying GMR with magnetic null-point reconnection. Only under restrictive assumptions is the slip velocity related to the gradient of the qu…
A broad variety of observational methods allows us to see the effect of magnetic reconnection in high-temperature strongly-magnetized plasma of the solar corona. Some specific features of the large-scale reconnection in large solar flares are summarized in this review but they are not investigated in detail yet. For example, an analysis of the topological peculiarities of magnetic field in active regions clearly shows that the so-called topological trigger phenomenon is necessary to allow for in order to construct realistic models for large solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). Howev…
In this paper, we study the energy conversion and spectra in a corona current sheet by 2.5-dimensional MHD numerical simulations. Numerical results show that many Petschek-like fine structures with slow-mode shocks mediated by plasmoid instabilities develop during the magnetic reconnection process. The termination shocks can also be formed above the primary magnetic island and at the head of secondary islands. These shocks play important roles in generating thermal energy in a corona current sheet. For a numerical simulation with initial conditions close to the solar corona environment, the ra…
Sunward-flowing voids above post-coronal mass ejection flare arcades, also known as supra-arcade downflows (SADs), have characteristics consistent with post-reconnection magnetic flux tube cross-sections. Applying semi-automatic detection and analysis software to a large sample of flares using several instruments (e.g., Hinode/XRT, Yohkoh/SXT, TRACE, and SOHO/LASCO), we have estimated parameters such as speeds, sizes, heights, magnetic flux, and relaxation energy associated with SADs, which we interpret as reconnection outflows. We also present speed and height measurements of shrinking loops …
