SH12B:
Understanding the Role of Magnetic Flux Ropes in Heliophysics

Submit an Abstract to this Session



Session ID#: 31376

Session Description:
Magnetic flux ropes occur over a wide range of spatial scales throughout the heliosphere. Most well-known are large-scale flux ropes usually associated with magnetic cloud structures inside interplanetary coronal mass ejections. These structures are observed to contribute to Forbush decreases in solar energetic particles and low-energy cosmic rays, among other effects. However, evidence is accumulating for the existence of a distinct, but less well understood, category of small-scale magnetic flux ropes in the solar wind, the origin of which is still being debated. Furthermore, flux rope (island, or plasmoid) structures exist in Earth's magnetosphere and solar corona. These structures, being dynamically active through processes such as compression, contraction, and merging, are thought to play an important role in converting magnetic energy into suprathermal particle energy. We solicit observational, theoretical, and simulation contributions that will shed light on the fundamental physics of these flux rope structures in heliophysics.
Primary Convener:  Jakobus Albertus le Roux, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, United States
Conveners:  Qiang Hu, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Department of Space Science, Huntsville, United States and Quanming Lu, USTC University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Chairs:  Qiang Hu, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Department of Space Science, Huntsville, United States and Jakobus Albertus le Roux, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, USA, Department of Space Science, Huntsville, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Qiang Hu, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Department of Space Science, Huntsville, United States

Cross-Listed:
  • SM - SPA-Magnetospheric Physics
Index Terms:

2744 Magnetotail [MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS]
7519 Flares [SOLAR PHYSICS, ASTROPHYSICS, AND ASTRONOMY]
7835 Magnetic reconnection [SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS]
7845 Particle acceleration [SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Small-scale Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Solar Wind (216040)
Qiang Hu, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Department of Space Science and CSPAR, Huntsville, AL, United States and Jinlei Zheng, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, United States
The Role of Fluid Compression in Particle Energization during Magnetic Reconnection (Invited) (214318)
Xiaocan Li1, Fan Guo2, Hui Li3 and Shengtai Li2, (1)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (2)Los Alamos National Lab, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (3)Los Alamos National Lab, Los Alamos, United States
The role of three-dimensional transport in driving enhanced electron acceleration during magnetic reconnection (Invited) (259712)
Marc Swisdak, University of Maryland College Park, Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, College Park, MD, United States, Joel Dahlin, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States and James Frederick Drake, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
A Kinetic-MHD Theory for the Self-Consistent Energy Exchange Between Energetic Particles and Active Small-scale Flux Ropes (246112)
Jakobus Albertus le Roux, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, United States
Structured Slow Solar Wind Variability: Streamer Blob Flux Ropes and Torsional Alfven Waves (239079)
Benjamin J Lynch, University of California Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States and Aleida Katherine Higginson, University of Michigan, AOSS, Ann Arbor, United States
Steady State Model for Solar Coronal Loops (277015)
Linda Sugiyama, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States and Mahboubeh Asgari-Targhi, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, United States
A model for heliospheric flux-ropes (283706)
Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla, Catholic University of America, Washington, United States, Mark Linton, US Naval Research Laboratory, Space Science Division, Washington, DC, United States, Angelos Vourlidas, Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Space Department, Laurel, MD, United States and Miguel A. UAH Hidalgo, Alcala University, Madrid, Spain

See more of: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics