Abstract. Time-dependent Petschek-type reconnection including moving shock waves and discontinuities in a compressible plasma is studied. Reconnection is initiated by a dissipative electric field pulse along a reconnection line and generates nonlinear perturbations propagating along an initial .current sheet. The induced linear wave perturbations in the adjacent half-spaces are obtained analytically in the form of a convolution integral. The results are evaluated for typical dayside magnetopause parameters and presented for comparison with observations of dayside reconnection events.

Abstract. We discuss the structure of the reconnection layer as recorded by ISEE 2 during an outbound crossing of the dayside, northern magnetopause on October 29, 1979. Besides a rotational discontinuity, this crossing shows slow mode shock structure. We interpret this event theoretically in terms of magnetic field line reconnection based on a pulse-like Petschek-type model, rather than in terms of steady state reconnection on a moving magnetopause. Our model is generalized through the introduction of a space-and time-varying reconnection rate. Furthermore, the magnetic fields and velocities on either side of the magnetopause current sheet may have arbitrary strength and orientation with respect to each other; additionally, the densities on either side of the current sheet may be different in general. Using boundary/initial conditions from the spacecraft data, we calculate the temporal/spatial behavior of all reconnection-associated structures. In particular, having chosen a suitable trajectory through the magnetopause, we consider the temporal behavior of the magnetic field and plasma parameters as these reconnection-associated events pass by. The results reproduce the behavior of the data reasonably well.

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