Asymmetric shear flow effects on magnetic field configuration within oppositely directed solar wind reconnection exhausts

Abstract

We present observations of the nearly oppositely directed solar wind reconnection jets from the same reconnection X line that swept by the Wind and STEREO-A spacecraft on 11 March 2007. The event was characterized by an external plasma density asymmetry and a jet-aligned shear flow across the exhausts. A well-defined pair of asymmetric current sheets bounded both outflow regions. The observed current sheet asymmetries and differences in the magnitude of the antiparallel magnetic field components within the two exhausts were consistent with the sense of the shear flow and the predictions from two-dimensional MHD simulations of reconnection outflows for the Earths asymmetric flank magnetopause. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.