Simulating the dawn-dusk asymmetry of Mercurys magnetotail reconnection with MHD-AEPIC model
Abstract
Since the kinetic scales of Mercury's magnetospheric plasma can be comparable to Mercury's radius, kinetic effects play an important role in Mercury's magnetosphere. Chen et al. (2019) studied the dawn-dusk asymmetries of Mercurys magnetotail using the magnetohydrodynamics with embedded particle-in-cell (MHD-EPIC) simulations, and showed the asymmetries of the tail current-sheet thickness, plasma density and electron pressure clearly. The MHD-EPIC simulations also show the asymmetries of reconnection products, the dipolarization events and planetward reconnection jets, but the asymmetries are less obvious than MESSENGER observations. To further explore the physics behind the reconnection asymmetries, we use the newly developed MHD with adaptively embedded particle-in-cell (MHD-AEPIC) model to simulate Mercurys magnetotail dynamics. The MHD-AEPIC model supports a PIC region of any shape so that Mercurys inner magnetosphere can be also covered by the PIC code. Compared to Chen et al. (2019), the larger PIC region in the MHD-AEPIC model allows us to study the evolution of the dipolarization events and reconnection jets after they penetrate into the inner magnetosphere. Since the ion-electron mass ratio may be crucial for the dawn-dusk asymmetries, we will examine its role by varying this model parameter in a series of simulations.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFMSM55C1788C