Global Three‐Dimensional Simulation of Earth's Dayside Reconnection Using a Two‐Way Coupled Magnetohydrodynamics With Embedded Particle‐in‐Cell Model: Initial Results
Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2017 papers
Abstract
Abstract We perform a three‐dimensional (3‐D) global simulation of Earth's magnetosphere with kinetic reconnection physics to study the flux transfer events (FTEs) and dayside magnetic reconnection with the recently developed magnetohydrodynamics with embedded particle‐in‐cell model. During the 1 h long simulation, the FTEs are generated quasi‐periodically near the subsolar point and move toward the poles. We find that the magnetic field signature of FTEs at their early formation stage is similar to a “crater FTE,” which is characterized by a magnetic field strength dip at the FTE center. After the FTE core field grows to a significant value, it becomes an FTE with typical flux rope structure. When an FTE moves across the cusp, reconnection between the FTE field lines and the cusp field lines can dissipate the FTE. The kinetic features are also captured by our model. A crescent electron phase space distribution is found near the reconnection site. A similar distribution is found for ions at the location where the Larmor electric field appears. The lower hybrid drift instability (LHDI) along the current sheet direction also arises at the interface of magnetosheath and magnetosphere plasma. The LHDI electric field is about 8 mV/m, and its dominant wavelength relative to the electron gyroradius agrees reasonably with Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations.
Related Papers
- → Triggering of magnetic reconnection in a magnetosheath current sheet due to compression against the magnetopause(2011)74 cited
- → The scale of the magnetotail reconnecting current sheet in the presence of O+(2014)22 cited
- → Finite Larmor radius effect on ion pickup at Venus(1987)81 cited
- → Fast compression of a current sheet during externally driven magnetic reconnection(2014)35 cited
- → Experimental Investigation of Driven Magnetic Reconnection in TS-3 Device.(1999)6 cited