Paper detail

Magnetic field-line lengths inside interplanetary magnetic flux ropes

We report on the detailed and systematic study of field-line twist and length distributions within magnetic flux ropes embedded in Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs). The Grad-Shafranov reconstruction method is utilized together with a constant-twist nonlinear force-free (Gold-Hoyle) flux rope model to reveal the close relation between the field-line twist and length in cylindrical flux ropes, based on in-situ Wind spacecraft measurements. We show that the field-line twist distributions within interplanetary flux ropes are inconsistent with the Lundquist model. In particular we utilize the unique measurements of magnetic field-line lengths within selected ICME events as provided by Kahler et al. (2011) based on energetic electron burst observations at 1 AU and the associated type III radio emissions detected by the Wind spacecraft. These direct measurements are compared with our model calculations to help assess the flux-rope interpretation of the embedded magnetic structures. By using the different flux-rope models, we show that the in-situ direct measurements of field-line lengths are consistent with a flux-rope structure with spiral field lines of constant and low twist, largely different from that of the Lundquist model, especially for relatively large-scale flux ropes.