Possible in-situ evidence for plasmoids in a reconnecting flare current sheet

Authors: Ryan French (National Solar Observatory), Ritesh Patel (Southwest Research Institute), Maria Kazachenko (University of Colorado Boulder / National Solar Observatory), Joel Dahlin (NASA GSFC), Tatiana Niembro Hernández (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Katharine Reeves (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Matthew West (Southwest Research Institute)

We investigate small-scale oscillatory structures observed during a Parker Solar Probe crossing of a likely reconnecting solar flare current sheet region. During the <20 minute current sheet crossing, we detect clear oscillations in the vector magnetic fields from the FIELDS instrument, alongside matching oscillations in velocity, density and temperature, measured by the SWEAP instrument. Fourier analysis reveals consistent oscillatory periods at ~15 and ~30 seconds. We investigate current sheet plasmoids as a possible explanation to the observed in-situ oscillations, comparing the observed oscillatory phase relationships with those predicted by plasmoids in MHD reconnection models.