MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS STUDY OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL FAST MAGNETIC RECONNECTION FOR INTERMITTENT SNAKE-LIKE DOWNFLOWS IN SOLAR FLARES

Journal Article · Thu Dec 10 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/707/1/420· OSTI ID:21389263

Shimizu, T; Kondo, K ^[1]; Ugai, M; Shibata, K ^[2]

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1. Research Center for Space and Cosmic Evolution, Ehime University, Matsuyama City 790-8577 (Japan)
2. Kwasan Observatory, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto City 607-8471 (Japan)

Three-dimensional instability of the spontaneous fast magnetic reconnection is studied with magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulation, where the two-dimensional model of the spontaneous fast magnetic reconnection is destabilized in three dimensions. In two-dimensional models, every plasma condition is assumed to be uniform in the sheet current direction. In that case, it is well known that the two-dimensional fast magnetic reconnection can be caused by current-driven anomalous resistivity, when an initial resistive disturbance is locally put in a one-dimensional current sheet. In this paper, it is studied whether the two-dimensional fast magnetic reconnection can be destabilized or not when the initial resistive disturbance is three dimensional, i.e., that which has weak fluctuations in the sheet current direction. According to our study, the two-dimensional fast magnetic reconnection is developed to the three-dimensional intermittent fast magnetic reconnection which is strongly localized in the sheet current direction. The resulting fast magnetic reconnection repeats to randomly eject three-dimensional magnetic loops which are very similar to the intermittent downflows observed in solar flares. In fact, in some observations of solar flares, the current sheet seems to be approximately one dimensional, but the fast magnetic reconnection is strongly localized in the sheet current direction, i.e., fully three dimensional. In addition, the observed plasma downflows as snake-like curves. It is shown that those observed features are consistent with our numerical MHD study.

• OSTI ID: 21389263
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 707; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
MAGNETIC RECONNECTION
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
MECHANICS
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
SIMULATION
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR FLARES
STARS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
STELLAR FLARES
SUN
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS