Ion exhaust distributions and reconnection location with Magnetospheric Multiscale and global MHD test particles
Abstract
Magnetic reconnection at Earth's dayside magnetopause is an essential process in magnetospheric physics. Under southward IMF conditions, reconnection occurs along a thin ribbon across the dayside magnetopause. The location of this ribbon has been studied extensively in terms of global optimization of quantities like reconnecting field energy or magnetic shear, but with expected errors of 1-2 Earth radii these global models give limited context for cases where an observation is near the reconnection line. Building on previous results, which established the cutoff contour method for locating reconnection using in-situ velocity measurements, we examine the effects of MHD-scale waves on reconnection exhaust distributions. We use a test particle exhaust distribution propagated through a globamagnetohydrodynamics model fields and compare with Magnetospheric Multiscale observations of reconnection exhaust.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMSM13B2366B
- Keywords:
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- 2723 Magnetic reconnection;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS;
- 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions;
- MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS;
- 7845 Particle acceleration;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS;
- 7863 Turbulence;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS