A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Tail reconnection in the global magnetospheric context: Vlasiator first results




AuthorsMinna Palmroth, Sanni Hoilijoki, Liisa Juusola, Tuija I. Pulkkinen, Heli Hietala, Yann Pfau-Kempf, Urs Ganse, Sebastian von Alfthan, Rami Vainio, Michael Hesse

PublisherCOPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH

Publication year2017

JournalAnnales Geophysicae

Journal name in sourceANNALES GEOPHYSICAE

Journal acronymANN GEOPHYS-GERMANY

Volume35

Issue6

First page 1269

Last page1274

Number of pages6

ISSN0992-7689

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-1269-2017(external)

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/27886624(external)


Abstract
The key dynamics of the magnetotail have been researched for decades and have been associated with either three-dimensional (3-D) plasma instabilities and/or magnetic reconnection. We apply a global hybrid-Vlasov code, Vlasiator, to simulate reconnection self-consistently in the ion kinetic scales in the noon-midnight meridional plane, including both dayside and nightside reconnection regions within the same simulation box. Our simulation represents a numerical experiment, which turns off the 3-D instabilities but models ion-scale reconnection physically accurately in 2-D. We demonstrate that many known tail dynamics are present in the simulation without a full description of 3-D instabilities or without the detailed description of the electrons. While multiple reconnection sites can coexist in the plasma sheet, one reconnection point can start a global reconfiguration process, in which magnetic field lines become detached and a plasmoid is released. As the simulation run features temporally steady solar wind input, this global reconfiguration is not associated with sudden changes in the solar wind. Further, we show that lobe density variations originating from dayside reconnection may play an important role in stabilising tail reconnection.

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