Summary of Magnetic Holes Project

Magnetic Holes in the solar wind are anomalous decreases in the interplanetary magnetic field as measured at a particular spacecraft. Such signatures have been observed in durations of several hours all the way down to the time resolution of the fastest magnetometer instruments, and with magnetic field decreases anywhere from a few percent to nearly full annihilation. It has been an objective of this study to implement a general strategy for detecting magnetic holes on all scales at which they can be found. Investigations into the properties of magnetic holes began with collections of events appearing distinct to the naked eye, perhaps biased by morphological characteristics or suggestive density and temperature fluctuations. More recent studies have taken the simple approach of cataloging any time period wherein the magnetic field is reduced by more than half. This investigation takes a statistical approach to the problem of identifying real magnetic hole events at all available scales.