Remarks on the intrinsic timescale for reconnection on the dayside magnetopause

We show that with reasonable values of anomalous resistivity, surface-wave-induced magnetic reconnection at an interface between two plasma regions (such as the magnetosheath and the magnetopause) has an intrinsic timescale that can explain observations of a delay time between the southward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field and the onset of a how transfer event at the magnetopause.