Cross-Scale Properties of Dayside Magnetic Reconnection

Abstract:

Understanding whether and/or how the microphysics of dayside magnetic reconnection impacts the global-scale is important to develop quantitative predictions of the coupling process between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere. Here, we use a suite of global magnetospheric magnetohydrodynamic simulations with identical solar wind conditions but different reconnection physics to assess its micro-, meso- and macro-scale impact. We compare local and global metrics of reconnection, including the reconnection rate and upstream plasma parameters between the different simulations. We investigate idealized simulations both with due southward and oblique interplanetary magnetic field.