Dependence of Solar Wind-Magnetospheric Coupling on Reconnection Physics

There has been renewed debate about the nature of solar wind-magnetospheric coupling, specifically regarding whether the global reconnected magnetic flux is completely controlled by boundary conditions (whether imposed by the solar wind or from the inner magnetosphere), known as the Axford conjecture, or whether the local physics of the (dayside) reconnection controls the coupling, known as the Borovsky conjecture. Recent work has shown that interior boundary conditions altered by ionospheric outflow or impacted by the plasmasphere can have an effect, which can be consistent with both the Axford and Borovsky conjectures. However, there has been less research into the effect of the local dayside reconnection physics, which cannot be construed as a boundary condition in the sense of the Axford Conjecture. In this study, we analyze global magnetospheric numerical simulations with the BATS-R-US code that differ only by the terms that impact the reconnection. In particular, we perform simulations with (1) only grid scale dissipation, (2) a uniform resistivity, (3) a current dependent resistivity, and (4) the Hall term. We compare global and local solar wind-magnetospheric coupling metrics in these simulations with no dipole tilt and due southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), including the local reconnection rate, separator-integrated global reconnection potential, and extent of the geoeffective length in the solar wind. Impacts for solar wind-magnetospheric coupling will be discussed.