Unraveling the Nature of Steady Magnetopause Reconnection Versus Flux Transfer Events

Details Unraveling the Nature of Steady Magnetopause Reconnection Versus Flux Transfer Events Unraveling the Nature of Steady Magnetopause Reconnection Versus Flux Transfer Events

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufmsm51c..07r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #SM51C-07

Physics

2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, 2728 Magnetosheath, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2753 Numerical Modeling, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental mode of energy and momentum transfer from the solar wind to the magnetosphere. It is known to occur in different forms depending on solar wind and magnetospheric conditions. In particular, steady reconnection can be distinguished from pulse-like reconnection events which are also known as Flux Transfer Events (FTEs). The formation mechanism of FTEs and their contolling factors remain controversial. We use global MHD simulations of Earth's magnetosphere to show that for southward IMF conditions: a) steady reconnection preferentially occurs without FTEs when the stagnation flow line nearly coincides with the X-line location, which requires small dipole tilt and nearly due southward IMF, b) FTEs occur when the flow/field symmetry is broken, which requires either a large dipole tilt and/or a substantial east-west component of the IMF, c) the predicted spacecraft signature and the repetition frequency of FTEs in the simulations agrees very well with typical observations, lending credibility to the the model, d) the fundamental process that leads to FTE formation is multiple X-line formation caused by the flow and field patterns in the magnetosheath and requires no intrinsic plasma property variations like variable resistivity, e) if the dipole tilt breaks the symmetry FTEs occur only in the winter hemisphere whereas the reconnection signatures in the summer hemisphere are steady with no bipolar FTE-like signatures, f) if the IMF east-west field component breaks the symmetry FTEs occur in both hemispheres, and g) FTE formation depends on sufficient resolution and low diffusion in the model -- coarse resolution and/or high diffusivity lead to flow-through reconnection signatures that appear unphysical given the frequent observation of FTEs.

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