Kinetic Simulations of Magnetopause Including Ionospheric Effect

这项研究计划将利用动力学粒子代码来分析与地球磁层顶等离子体传输有关的过程。 完全粒子模拟将用于研究无碰撞重联所涉及的基本过程。 混合粒子/流体模拟，然后将进行确定磁层顶重联的大规模后果。 在这些模拟中特别感兴趣的是，它们将使用多个离子种类，这可能导致Kelvin-Helmholz波的激发和突发重联。 爆发性重联导致通量转移事件的形成，这在卫星数据中已经被多次观测到，但尚未得到令人满意的解释。

This research program will utilize a kinetic particle code to analyze the processes involved with plasma transport at the Earth's magnetopause. Full particle simulations will be used to study the fundamental processes involved in collisionless reconnection. Hybrid particle/fluid simulations will then be performed to determine the large scale consequences of magnetopause reconnection. Of particular interest in these simulations is the fact that they will use multiple ion species, which can lead to the excitation of Kelvin-Helmholz waves and bursty reconnection. Bursty reconnection results in the formation of Flux Transfer Events, which have been observed many times in satellite data, but have yet to be satisfactorily explained.