Abstract
[1] We examine phenomena associated with eruptions in the two different regimes of the solar corona and the terrestrial magnetosphere. We find striking similarities between the speeds of shrinking magnetic field lines in the corona and dipolarization fronts traversing the magnetosphere. We also examine the similarities between supra-arcade downflows observed during solar flares and bursty bulk flows seen in the magnetotail and find that these phenomena have remarkably similar speeds, velocity profiles, and size scales. Thus we show manifest similarities in the magnetic reconfiguration in response to the ejection of coronal mass ejections in the corona and the ejection of plasmoids in the magnetotail. The subsequent return of loops to a quasi-potential state in the corona and field dipolarization in the magnetotail are physical analogs and trigger similar phenomena such as downflows, which provides key insights into the underlying drivers of the plasma dynamics.
Department
Physics
Publication Date
9-1-2008
Journal Title
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1029/2008JA013049
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Reeves, K. K., et al. (2008), Posteruptive phenomena in coronal mass ejections and substorms: Indicators of a universal process? J. Geophys. Res., 113, A00B02, doi:10.1029/2008JA013049.
Rights
Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.