Collaborative Research: Reconnection in the Dayside Magnetosphere

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This project will use a combination of global and local magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to examine three questions concerning magnetic reconnection on the dayside of Earth's magnetosphere. The three questions are: (1) Is the global reconnection rate controlled by local or external conditions? (2) Is the site of reconnection dependent on the physics that causes reconnection? (3) Is the reconnection process at the magnetopause continuous or intermittent? The simulations will couple local resistive MHD and Hall MHD codes to a global MHD code. The results of the simulatons will be compared to in situ observations from the Cluster and THEMIS spacecraft missions. The techniques that will be developed for coupling the local and the global codes will make it possible to study multi-scale coupling and is potentially transformative. Although the research is directed toward magnetic reconnection on the dayside of Earth's magnetosphere, the topic of magnetic reconnection and the techniques for coupling local to global simulations will have impacts on studies of reconnection in Earth's night-side magnetotail, reconnection in the solar wind and in the sun's corona and has the potential to impact studies of astrophysical and laboratory plasma processes.