Magnetic recording system employing passive thermal asperity avoidance

An apparatus comprises magnetic recording disk surfaces and magnetic recording heads comprising a leading and a following head. A controller moves the heads so that the leading head, at a passive fly height, follows a first track of a first disk surface containing a passive thermal asperity (PTA), and the following head, at a passive fly height, follows a first track of a second disk surface. The PTAs on tracks of the second disk surface define virtual PTAs on corresponding tracks of the first disk surface. The controller moves the heads away from the respective first tracks and to neighboring tracks to avoid the PTA and virtual PTAs. The controller is configured to move the heads back to the respective first tracks so that a write or read operation can be performed by the leading head.