CCMC Modeling of MMS Dayside Reconnection Events

Abstract:

This paper presents global magnetospheric modeling results of the “SWMF with RCM” model run at highest spatial resolution at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC; https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov). We use these models to help understand the global context of the extremely high resolution MMS measurements (to be presented in the papers by Webster et al. and Marshall et al., to follow). In each case the MMS spacecraft is within 1 RE of a X-line (or in some cases a separatrix line) as predicted by the model using measured solar wind inputs. The distortion of the solar wind and interior magnetospheric field lines as the magnetopause is approached leads to a situation where the strongest currents are not at the boundary between open and closed field lines but lie just inside and outside that sharp discontinuity. The discontinuity itself is a sharp change of particle pressure leading to magnetization currents and crescent particle distributions.