Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm22b..07k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM22B-07
Physics
Plasma Physics
[2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [2753] Magnetospheric Physics / Numerical Modeling, [2784] Magnetospheric Physics / Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, [7863] Space Plasma Physics / Turbulence
Scientific paper
Magnetic flux ropes are ubiquitous and are commonly observed in planetary magnetospheres, in the solar wind, on the Sun, and in laboratory experiments. At the Earth's magnetopause, they are referred to as flux transfer events (FTEs). Many models of FTEs have been proposed but there is no consensus regarding their origin. Here we use peta-scale 2D and 3D full particle simulations of magnetic reconnection asymmetric current sheets to examine the self-consistent generation of flux ropes as a function of guide field. The simulations demonstrate complex flows arising in the reconnection process. We examine the connection between flux ropes and flow vortices. We make specific predictions on their formation site and compare with a previously puzzling Cluster observation of a sequence of small FTEs that could not be explained by 2D simulations. We find these observations to be consistent with the predictions of our 3D simulations. We find that a critical element in the subsequent evolution of reconnection and its temporal behavior is the stability and length of the secondary electron layers. We show that under certain conditions these simulations exhibit the longest electron layers ever reported, while in other cases the layers break up, leading to turbulent reconnection.
Daughton W. S.
Karimabadi Homa
Loring B.
Retinò Alessandro
Roytershteyn Vadim
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