GEM: Global versus Local Control of Solar Wind-Magnetospheric Coupling

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Magnetic reconnection is basically the breaking and reconfiguring of magnetic field lines so that the Earth's and interplanetary magnetic field lines (IMF) become interconnected for a time. In this process, magnetic energy is converted into heat and kinetic energy of charged particles and drives the circulation of plasmas and electromagnetic energy through the magnetosphere. A debate is ongoing in the space physics community about whether the integrated dayside magnetic reconnection rate is controlled by local plasma conditions at the reconnection site (called local-control) or whether the reconnection rate is controlled by the solar wind electric field (called global-control). The primary goal of the work is to use global MHD simulations to address this controversy. Knowledge of what controls the rate of dayside magnetic reconnection is critical to understanding how the geospace system works and, ultimately, improving space weather prediction of value to a technology-dependent society. Global magnetospheric simulations with selected changes to the local plasma parameters in the reconnection region (uniform resistivity, localized resistivity, or the Hall term) will be performed with identical solar wind conditions for a range of orientations of the IMF to determine whether the change in local reconnection physics alters the global magnetospheric response. A secondary goal is to determine how well 2D local reconnection models describe magnetic reconnection. Data-model comparisons will be conducted using satellite data to test the applicability of the modeling results to Earth's magnetosphere.