Current Sheets and Magnetic Reconnection statistics by Solar Orbiter at few to tens of Ion Inertial Lengths I: Energy Dissipation
Abstract
In this work, we study the turbulent origin of ion-scale Current Sheets (CSs) and the dissipation of energy via magnetic reconnection. We analyze 103 hours of high-cadence (4 samples/s) in-situ ion data from Solar Orbiter, collected between July 2020 and September 2022. We apply an automatic detection algorithm that finds current sheets (CSs) of thickness (length in the normal direction, λ) near the ion inertial length (δi), and classifies them as Alfvénic or reconnecting. We compile a catalog of 974 CSs of thickness in the range of few to 90 ion inertial lengths, of which 53 contain an ion reconnection jet. We estimate that Solar Orbiter spends ∼ 1 % of the dwell time inside a CS of few to 90 δi thickness, and 0.06\% inside a reconnecting CS of the same thickness range. By comparing these results with previous studies we estimate that the abundance of CSs and of Reconnecting CSs evolves with heliocentric distance (r) as r−0.9 and r−1.5, respectively. We estimate that magnetic reconnection dissipates εrec∼ 30 hspace5pt J kg−1 s−1, in the ∼ 1 − 40 δi scale-range, by assessing the amount of plasma that interacts with a reconnection exhaust. We show how the dissipation of turbulence energy cascade by magnetic reconnection at scales smaller than 90 δi is more effective closer to the Sun, and decays as r−3.6. The current density of Alfvénic CSs thicker than the ion inertial length presents scale invariance, obeying J0/JA=0.9(λ/2δi)−0.71, suggesting that CSs generated locally from solar wind turbulence.
Related
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- Three-dimensional magnetic reconnection in unipolar regions. A case study of coronal bright points in the Sun
- Ion-scale current sheets embedded in the reconnection-jet shear layer of the near-Sun heliospheric current sheet
- Can Magnetic Reconnection Accelerate Energetic Particles in the Heliosheath?
BibTeX
@misc{albert2026current,
title = {{Current Sheets and Magnetic Reconnection statistics by Solar Orbiter at few to tens of Ion Inertial Lengths I: Energy Dissipation}},
author = {Inmaculada F. Albert and Sergio Toledo-Redondo and Víctor Montagud-Camps and Aida Castilla and Naïs Fargette and Benoît Lavraud and Philippe Louarn and Christopher J. Owen and Ioannis Zouganelis},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.41923},
eprint = {2610.41923},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.41923},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Current Sheets and Magnetic Reconnection statistics by Solar Orbiter at few to tens of Ion Inertial Lengths I: Energy Dissipation
AU - Inmaculada F. Albert
AU - Sergio Toledo-Redondo
AU - Víctor Montagud-Camps
AU - Aida Castilla
AU - Naïs Fargette
AU - Benoît Lavraud
AU - Philippe Louarn
AU - Christopher J. Owen
AU - Ioannis Zouganelis
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.41923
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.41923
AB - In this work, we study the turbulent origin of ion-scale Current Sheets (CSs) and the dissipation of energy via magnetic reconnection. We analyze 103 hours of high-cadence (4 samples/s) in-situ ion data from Solar Orbiter, collected between July 2020 and September 2022. We apply an automatic detection algorithm that finds current sheets (CSs) of thickness (length in the normal direction, λ) near the ion inertial length (δ_i), and classifies them as Alfvénic or reconnecting. We compile a catalog of 974 CSs of thickness in the range of few to 90 ion inertial lengths, of which 53 contain an ion reconnection jet. We estimate that Solar Orbiter spends ∼ 1 % of the dwell time inside a CS of few to 90 δ_i thickness, and 0.06\% inside a reconnecting CS of the same thickness range. By comparing these results with previous studies we estimate that the abundance of CSs and of Reconnecting CSs evolves with heliocentric distance (r) as r^−0.9 and r^−1.5, respectively. We estimate that magnetic reconnection dissipates ε_rec∼ 30 hspace5pt J kg^−1 s^−1, in the ∼ 1 − 40 δ_i scale-range, by assessing the amount of plasma that interacts with a reconnection exhaust. We show how the dissipation of turbulence energy cascade by magnetic reconnection at scales smaller than 90 δ_i is more effective closer to the Sun, and decays as r^−3.6. The current density of Alfvénic CSs thicker than the ion inertial length presents scale invariance, obeying J_0/J_A=0.9(λ/2δ_i)^−0.71, suggesting that CSs generated locally from solar wind turbulence.
ER -