Antiparallel and component reconnection at the dayside magnetopause

Fuselier, S. A.; Trattner, K. J.; Petrinec, S. M.

doi:10.1029/2011ja016888

Cited by 79 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…Kinetic ion signatures of magnetopause reconnection can be used to estimate the distance from an observing platform to the X-line at the magnetopause, information concerning which has been used to address a long-standing problem of anti-parallel versus component reconnection (e.g., Trattner et al, 2007;Trenchi et al, 2008;Fuselier et al, 2011): whether or not magnetopause reconnection occurs preferably along a line or lines where the magnetic shear angle, the rotation angle across the magnetopause of the field direction in the boundary plane, is nearly 180…”

Section: A Kinetic Picturementioning

confidence: 99%

Structure and Dynamics of the Magnetopause and Its Boundary Layers

Hasegawa¹

2012

Monogr. Environ. Earth Planets

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The magnetopause is the key region in space for the transfer of solar wind mass, momentum, and energy into the magnetosphere. During the last decade, our understanding of the structure and dynamics of Earth's magnetopause and its boundary layers has advanced considerably, thanks largely to the advent of multi-spacecraft missions such as Cluster and THEMIS. Moreover, various types of physics-based techniques have been developed for visualizing two-or threedimensional plasma and field structures from data taken by one or more spacecraft, providing a new approach to the analysis of the spatiotemporal properties of magnetopause processes, such as magnetic reconnection and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). Information on the size, shape, orientation, and evolution of magnetic flux ropes or flow vortices generated by those processes can be extracted from in situ measurements. Observations show that magnetopause reconnection can be globally continuous for both southward and northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions, but even under such circumstances, more than one X-line may exist within a certain (low-latitude or high-latitude) portion on the magnetopause and some X-lines may retreat anti-sunward. The potential global effects of such behavior are discussed. An overview is also given of the identification, excitation, evolution, and possible consequences of the magnetopause KHI: there is evidence for nonlinear KHI growth and associated vortex-induced reconnection under northward IMF. Observation-based estimates indicate that reconnection tailward of both polar cusps can be the dominant mechanism for solar wind plasma entry into the dayside magnetosphere under northward IMF. However, the mechanism by which the transferred plasma is transported into the central portion of the magnetotail, and the role of magnetopause processes in this transport, remain unclear. Future prospects of magnetopause and other relevant studies are also discussed.

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Section: A Kinetic Picturementioning

confidence: 99%

Structure and Dynamics of the Magnetopause and Its Boundary Layers

Hasegawa¹

2012

Monogr. Environ. Earth Planets

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“…At the magnetopause, the location of the X line highly depends on the orientations of the interplanetary magnetic fields (IMF). For a southward IMF, the X line is most likely to occur near the equatorial plane [e.g., Sonnerup, 1970;Øieroset et al, 1997;Moore et al, 2002;Fuselier et al, 2011;Tan et al, 2011]. For a northward IMF, the X line may take place at high-latitude boundary layer [Cowley, 1976;Crooker et al, 1979;Maezawa, 1976;Luhmann et al, 1984;Song et al, 1999].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

X lines in the magnetotail for southward and northward IMF conditions

et al. 2015

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Utilizing associated observations of Geotail and ACE satellites from the year of 1998 to 2005, we investigated the X lines in the near‐Earth tail under different interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. The X lines are recognized by the tailward fast flows with negative Bz. Statistically, the X lines in the tail can be observed for southward as well as northward IMF, but more frequently observed for southward IMF. A typical case on 26 April 2005 showed clear evidence that the X line can occur for northward IMF while the geomagnetic activity is particularly quiet. Further analysis showed that the X line‐related solar wind has stronger Ey and Bz components for southward than northward IMF. In addition, the X line‐related geomagnetic activities are stronger for southward than northward IMF.

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“…This jet was deflected from the neutral sheet owing to the Lorentz force j L × B g ; here, j L is the electric current in the outflow direction and B g is the guide field. In the Earth's magnetopause, component reconnections (with a non-negligible guide field) are suggested as important processes during solar-wind-magnetosphere interactions because the interplanetary magnetic fields (IMFs) have a variety of shear angles relative to the Earth's dipole field (Fuselier et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tripolar electric field Structure in guide field magnetic reconnection

Huang

Zhou

et al. 2018

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. It has been shown that the guide field substantially modifies the structure of the reconnection layer. For instance, the Hall magnetic and electric fields are distorted in guide field reconnection compared to reconnection without guide fields (i.e., anti-parallel reconnection). In this paper, we performed 2.5-D electromagnetic full particle simulation to study the electric field structures in magnetic reconnection under different initial guide fields (B g ). Once the amplitude of a guide field exceeds 0.3 times the asymptotic magnetic field B 0 , the traditional bipolar Hall electric field is clearly replaced by a tripolar electric field, which consists of a newly emerged electric field and the bipolar Hall electric field. The newly emerged electric field is a convective electric field about one ion inertial length away from the neutral sheet. It arises from the disappearance of the Hall electric field due to the substantial modification of the magnetic field and electric current by the imposed guide field. The peak magnitude of this new electric field increases linearly with the increment of guide field strength. Possible applications of these results to space observations are also discussed.

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Antiparallel and component reconnection at the dayside magnetopause

Cited by 79 publications

References 51 publications

Structure and Dynamics of the Magnetopause and Its Boundary Layers

Structure and Dynamics of the Magnetopause and Its Boundary Layers

X lines in the magnetotail for southward and northward IMF conditions

Tripolar electric field Structure in guide field magnetic reconnection

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