Wang, Yuming, Chenglong Shen, Rui Liu, Jiajia Liu, Jingnan Guo, Xiaolei Li, Mengjiao Xu, Qiang Hu, and Tielong Zhang, Understanding the Twist Distribution Inside Magnetic Flux Ropes by Anatomizing an Interplanetary Magnetic Cloud, Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics), 123, 3238-3261 (2018) (ADS)
(click on the image for a larger version)
Date: 2020 January 21
What would an interplanetary magnetic flux rope look like if we had the eyes of a magnetovore? This cartoon upgrades a classic one and perhaps retains some of its questionable properties. Are the flanks really that round? Are the twists really that numerous? Note that this adds reconnection episode to the previous one, not implausible considering the occurrence of "cannibalism" between CMEs, at least, and why not corotating wind structures? Here the reconnection helps to explain the erosion of the flux-tube structure, which eventually must dissolve into the general heliospheric field and then get totally confused at the heliopause.
The counterstreaming electrons shown here played a big role in the identification of ICMEs. If we called them "Counter-Marching Electrons" we'd definitely have a CME.