High-power heating of spherical tori by use of magnetic reconnection

Abstract

A novel high-power heating experiment of spherical tori (ST) has been developed in the TS-3 reconnection device using magnetic reconnection of merging STs. This method enables us to inject whole magnetic and thermal energies of a colliding ST into a target ST within short reconnection time. The maximum heating power of 15 MW was obtained in our low-field (0.03-0.08 T) and small-scale (R < 0.2 m) merging experiment. This heating energy is provided mostly by anomalous ion heating effect of magnetic reconnection. The ion heating energy and the merging speed increases with decreasing the q-value (B1 component) of the ST. This heating effect causes the β-values of STs to increase by factor 2-3. Copyright © The Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences (SGEPSS); The Seismological Society of Japan; The Volcanological Society of Japan; The Geodetic Society of Japan; The Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences.