Do the Legs of Magnetic Clouds Contain Twisted Flux-rope Magnetic Fields?

Owens, M. J., Do the Legs of Magnetic Clouds Contain Twisted Flux-rope Magnetic Fields?, ApJ, 818, 197 (2016) (ADS)

The cartoon

(click on the image for a larger version)

How does a "magnetic cloud" work? This cartoon introduces particle motions into the classic Cane cartoon, possibly using the same ad hoc French curve to template out the shape of the interplanetary shock. Here counterstreaming electrons on a closed magnetic flux tube, also possibly mirroring for other reasons than the global decrease of |B| with distance from the Sun, confuse the heat flux measurement in the solar wind. The Archivist notes that the bimodal pitch-angle distribution of the electrons suggests a new and probably better meaning of CME: "Counter-Marching Electrons".

Date: 2019 December 10