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Two fluid effects on three-dimensional reconnection in the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment with comparisons to space dataa)

Brown, M. R.; Cothran, C. D.; Fung, J.

Several new experimental results are reported from spheromak merging studies at the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment [M. R. Brown, Phys. Plasmas 6, 1717 (1999)] with relevance to three-dimensional (3D) reconnection in laboratory and space plasmas. First, recent velocity measurements of impurity ions using ion Doppler spectroscopy are reported. Bidi…

Wake formation behind positively charged spacecraft in flowing tenuous plasmas

Eriksson, A. I.; Engwall, E.; Forest, J.

Spacecraft in tenuous plasmas become positively charged because of photoelectron emission. If the plasma is supersonically drifting with respect to the spacecraft, a wake forms behind it. When the kinetic energy of the positive ions in the plasma is not sufficient to overcome the electrostatic barrier of the spacecraft potential, they scatter on t…

Larmor radius size density holes discovered in the solar wind upstream of Earth's bow shock

Dandouras, I.; Lucek, E.; Rème, H. +9 more

The Cluster and Double Star satellites recently observed plasma density holes upstream of Earth's collisionless bow shock to apogee distances of ∼19 and 13 earth radii, respectively. A survey of 147 isolated density holes using 4s time resolution data shows they have a mean duration of ∼17.9±10.4s, but holes as short as 4s are observed. The averag…