Solar Wind Heating as Revealed from the Variation of 3D Ion Velocity Distributions across the Magnetic Reconnection Exhaust Region

Abstract:

Magnetic reconnection within current sheet has been regarded as one of the crucial dissipation and heating processes of coherent structures in the solar wind turbulence. Counter-streaming of ions is an important phenomenon in the reconnection exhaust region ranged from the ion diffusion region to the extended outflow region. It has been suggested by theoretical and numerical models that the ions are going to be picked up by the ejecting magnetic field and show larger T_perpendicular than T_parallel, if the guide field is strong enough (in other word, the shear angle is relatively low). The pick-up behavior seems to favor the heating of heavy ions with high mass-to-charge ratio, since the high M/Q ions have larger gyro-period/transit-time and tend to be non-adiabatic more easily. The above statements from theoretical models have not been thoroughly testified in the solar wind observations, though the changes in total temperature and 1D reduced velocity distribution function had been studied. Until now, it remains unclear about the difference of full 3D velocity distribution for the proton and helium ions between the upstream and the exhaust regions. Here, we will analyze the plasma measurement data from WIND/3DP to explore and compare the parallel and perpendicular heating effect of different species of ions. As a preliminary result, the proton is found to show bi-directional streams in its velocity distribution in some reconnection exhaust regions. The thermalization of the counter-streaming protons will be presented. The relation between proton T_parallel/T_perpendicular and guide field strength (or shear angle) will be studied. The velocity distributions of helium ions will be illustrated, which shows the difference of heating effect between different M/Q ratios.