A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Tail reconnection in the global magnetospheric context: Vlasiator first results
Tekijät: Minna Palmroth, Sanni Hoilijoki, Liisa Juusola, Tuija I. Pulkkinen, Heli Hietala, Yann Pfau-Kempf, Urs Ganse, Sebastian von Alfthan, Rami Vainio, Michael Hesse
Kustantaja: COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
Julkaisuvuosi: 2017
Journal: Annales Geophysicae
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: ANNALES GEOPHYSICAE
Lehden akronyymi: ANN GEOPHYS-GERMANY
Vuosikerta: 35
Numero: 6
Aloitussivu: 1269
Lopetussivu: 1274
Sivujen määrä: 6
ISSN: 0992-7689
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-35-1269-2017
Rinnakkaistallenteen osoite: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/27886624
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.
Ladattava julkaisu This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
