A global simulation of the magnetosphere with a long tail - Southward and northward interplanetary magnetic field

Details A global simulation of the magnetosphere with a long tail - Southward and northward interplanetary magnetic field A global simulation of the magnetosphere with a long tail - Southward and northward interplanetary magnetic field

May 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993jgr....98.7503u&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 98, no. A5, p. 7503-7517.

Physics

59

Earth Magnetosphere, Geomagnetic Tail, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Magnetic Effects, Magnetic Field Reconnection, Space Environment Simulation, Magnetic Field Configurations, Magnetohydrodynamics, Magnetopause, Plasma Compression, Polar Cusps, Space Plasmas

Scientific paper

The role of the southward and northward components of the IMF in its interaction with the magnetosphere and reveal the physical processes and causalities of the interaction. It is found that a southward IMF, upon reconnection along the equatorial plane of the dayside magnetosphere, does indeed serve as an 'on switch' for explosive plasma sheet reconnection by enhancing the cross-tail current. This leads to the swift formation and ejection of large plasmoids in the magnetotail. Plasma is accelerated both tailward and toward the earth, leading to the transport of magnetic flux from the enhanced tail region to the eroded dayside magnetosphere. The reconnection rate and plasmoid formation speed are far greater than when no IMF is present. A northward IMF serves as an 'off switch' of plasma sheet reconnection even if reconnection processes are substantially under way. Because of reconnection along the cusp shoulder, magnetic flux is peeled away from the outer lobes of the magnetosphere, inhibiting reconnection processes in the plasma sheet by decreasing the cross-tail current. When the magnetosphere is continuously exposed to a northward IMF and the reconnection rate is high, its shape changes dramatically from its usual cometlike tail to one resembling a tadpole.

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