Formation and evolution of plasmoids and flux-ropes in the Earth's Magnetotail

The observation of plasmoids and flux-ropes in the Earth's magnetotail was crucial to establish the simultaneous presence of multiple x-lines in the tail, and has become the basis for the Near Earth Neutral Line (NENL) model of substorms. While the 'classical' NENL model envisions x-lines that extend across the entire tail, recent observations have shown that neither do the x-lines and resulting plasmoids encompass the entire tail, nor do the x-lines have to lie along the y-axis. Furthermore, several x-line/plasmoid/flux-rope structures can exist simultaneously. The fragmentation of the tail by spatially and temporally limited x-lines has important consequences for the mass and energy budget of the tail. Recent ARTEMIS observations have shown that the plasmoids in the distant tail are limited in the Y direction and some flux ropes are tilted during their tailward propagation. In this study we simulate plasmoids and flux-ropes in the Earth's magnetotail using the Open Global Geospace Circulation Model (OpenGGCM). We investigate the generation mechanisms for tail plasmoids and flux-ropes and their evolution as they propagate in the magnetotail. The simulation results show that the limited extend of NENL controls the length or the Y scale of tail plasmoid and flux rope. In addition, by studying their 3D magnetic topology we find that tilted flux ropes form due to a progressive spreading of the reconnection line along the east-west direction, which produces and releases the two ends of the flux rope at different times and at different speeds. By constructing a catalogue of observational signatures of plasmoid and flux rope we compare the differences of their signatures and find that large-scale plasmoids have much weaker core fields than that found inside the small-scale flux ropes.