A Three-Dimensional Global Hybrid Simulation Study of Magnetic Reconnection at the Dayside Magnetopause

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Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process that plays an important role in the transfer of the solar wind mass, momentum, and energy into Earth's magnetosphere. Fundamental issues on the micro- and mesoscale characteristics of reconnection in the magnetopause boundary layer are not adequately understood. This project will use a 3-D global hybrid plasma model to investigate magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause. The hybrid code treats electrons as a fluid, but includes full particle kinetics of ions. The code and is capable of resolving the plasma physics in a broad range from ion gyro-period to the dayside convection time scale, and from the ion Larmor radius to the global scale lengths. The primary tasks of this project are: (1) determination of the 3-D structure of magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause, (2) determination of the magnetic field and plasma properties and evolution of flux transfer events (FTEs) in the magnetopause reconnection, (3) investigation of the corresponding ion dynamics and velocity distributions in reconnection events at various locations, and (4) investigation of the differences between reconnection that occurs when the magnetic fields are primarily anti-parallel and reconnection that occurs when there is a strong guide field (also know as component reconnection). The study will contribute to our understanding of 3-D, multi-scale physics of magnetic reconnection in the global magnetosphere and will improve our knowledge of the dynamical and structural properties of geospace. The 3-D hybrid modeling efforts will also have broader applications in other topics of magnetospheric, astrophysical, and laboratory plasma physics. The study will include a graduate student and it will also contribute to the National Science Foundation's goal of developing and maintaining cutting edge national computing and information infrastructure for research and education