Magnetohydrodynamic With Embedded Particle‐In‐Cell Simulation of the Geospace Environment Modeling Dayside Kinetic Processes Challenge Event

Abstract

• 1 The MHD-EPIC simulation magnetic fields and plasma data match MMS3 observations well during the magnetopause crossing • 2 There are usually multiple X-lines at the magnetopause in the MHD-EPIC simulation • 3 The MHD-EPIC simulation shows complex movement and spreading of the Xlines

Magnetopause Reconnection as Influenced by the Dipole Tilt Under Southward IMF Conditions: Hybrid Simulation and MMS Observation

“…Plots of (a) B , magnetic field components (b) B L , (c) B M , (d) B N , ion bulk flow components (e) V L , (f) V M , and (g) V N , and (h) ion density N observed by MMS‐3 (black) and obtained from the hybrid simulation (red) and the MHD_EMIC simulation (blue, from Chen et al, 2020) for the event of magnetopause crossing from 02:10 to 02:16 UT on 18 November 2015.…”

“…If we shift our virtual spacecraft location inward by 0.06 R E , that is, to a slightly different range of x = 9.63 to 9.78 R E , a finite B M is present on the asymptotic magnetosphere side, as shown by the purple line in Figure 13c (labeled by Hybrid_adjusted). There appear to be more small‐scale oscillations in the MHD‐EPIC simulation than in the Hybrid simulation, since the PIC model in the MHD‐EPIC simulation can capture higher frequency electron physics (Chen et al, 2020). Also for the M‐component, the MMS observed a significant positive component of V M in the magnetosphere, which is not shown in the simulations.…”

“…The observational results are displayed with the black lines, and the hybrid simulation results are plotted by the red line (labeled Hybrid_aligned). As a comparison, results based on global simulations with the MHD with embedded PIC (MHD‐EPIC) model are also shown in Figure 13 by blue lines; the MHD‐EPIC simulation is also conducted for the GEM Dayside Kinetic Challenge for the same MMS magnetopause event (see Chen et al, 2020, in the same issue for details). In both the hybrid and the MHD‐EPIC simulations, unrealistically large particle Larmor radii (or inertial lengths) are used, which also correspond to a smaller ratio between the global convections and the particle gyroperiod.…”

“…by blue lines; the MHD-EPIC simulation is also conducted for the GEM Dayside Kinetic Challenge for the same MMS magnetopause event (seeChen et al, 2020, in the …”

The Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (CuPID) CubeSat Observatory: Mission Overview

“…Multi‐spacecraft (Walsh et al., 2017; Zou et al., 2020) as well as conjugate measurements at the magnetopause and in the ionosphere also present evidence for spatially localized magnetic reconnection (Zou et al., 2019). Spatially localized and discontinuous regions of reconnection have also been produced in global MHD (Sun et al., 2019) or MHD‐PIC models (Chen et al., 2020).…”