Reconnection at the Earth's magnetopause: Magnetic field observations and flux transfer events

1984 ◽  
pp. 124-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. T. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Flux Transfer

Plasma and magnetic field characteristics of magnetic flux transfer events

1982 ◽  
Vol 87 (A4) ◽  
pp. 2159 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Paschmann ◽  
G. Haerendel ◽  
I. Papamastorakis ◽  
N. Sckopke ◽  
S. J. Bame ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Magnetic Flux ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Flux Transfer

Dayside Magnetopause Reconnection and Flux Transfer Events: BepiColombo Earth-Flyby

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Jie Sun ◽  
James Slavin ◽  
Rumi Nakamura ◽  
Daniel Heyner ◽  
Johannes Mieth
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Flux Rope ◽  
Transfer Event ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Flux Ropes ◽  
Flux Transfer ◽  
Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

<p>BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The BepiColombo mission consists of two spacecraft, which are the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio). The mission made its first planetary flyby, which is the only Earth flyby, on 10 April 2020, during which several instruments collected measurements. In this study, we analyze MPO magnetometer (MAG) observations of Flux Transfer Events (FTEs) in the magnetosheath and the structure of the subsolar magnetopause near the  flow stagnation point. The magnetosheath plasma beta was high with a value of ~ 8 and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) was southward with a clock angle that decreased from ~ 100 degrees to ~ 150 degrees.  As the draped IMF became increasingly southward several of the flux transfer event (FTE)-type flux ropes were observed. These FTEs traveled southward indicating that the magnetopause X-line was located northward of the spacecraft, which is consistent with a dawnward tilt of the IMF. Most of the FTE-type flux ropes were in ion-scale, <10 s duration, suggesting that they were newly formed. Only one large-scale FTE-type flux rope, ~ 20 s, was observed. It was made up of two successive bipolar signatures in the normal magnetic field component, which is evidence of coalescence at a secondary reconnection site. Further analysis demonstrated that the dimensionless reconnection rate of the re-reconnection associated with the coalescence site was ~ 0.14. While this investigation was limited to the MPO MAG observations, it strongly supports a key feature of dayside reconnection discovered in the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, the growth of FTE-type flux ropes through coalescence at secondary reconnection sites.</p>

scholarly journals Concerning the occurrence pattern of flux transfer events on the dayside magnetopause

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 895-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Sibeck
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Magnetic Reconnection ◽  
Interplanetary Magnetic Field ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Dayside Magnetopause ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Flux Transfer ◽  
Occurrence Pattern ◽  
The Magnetic Field

Abstract. We present an analytical model for the magnetic field perturbations associated with flux transfer events (FTEs) on the dayside magnetopause as a function of the shear between the magnetosheath and magnetospheric magnetic fields and the ratio of their strengths. We assume that the events are produced by component reconnection along subsolar reconnection lines with tilts that depend upon the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), and show that the amplitudes of the perturbations generated during southward IMF greatly exceed those during northward IMF. As a result, even if the distributions of magnetic reconnection burst durations/event dimensions are identical during periods of northward and southward IMF orientation, events occurring for southward IMF orientations must predominate in surveys of dayside events. Two factors may restore the balance between events occurring for northward and southward IMF orientations on the flanks of the magnetosphere. Events generated on the dayside magnetopause during periods of southward IMF move poleward, while those generated during periods of northward IMF slip dawnward or duskward towards the flanks. Due to differing event and magnetospheric magnetic field orientations, events that produce weak signatures on the dayside magnetopause during intervals of northward IMF orientation may produce strong signatures on the flanks.

scholarly journals Evidence for transient, local ion foreshocks caused by dayside magnetopause reconnection

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (11) ◽  
pp. 943-959 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann Pfau-Kempf ◽  
Heli Hietala ◽  
Steve E. Milan ◽  
Liisa Juusola ◽  
Sanni Hoilijoki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Solar Wind ◽  
Interplanetary Magnetic Field ◽  
Ion Beams ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Dayside Magnetopause ◽  
Flux Transfer ◽  
Push Out ◽  
Magnetopause Reconnection

Abstract. We present a scenario resulting in time-dependent behaviour of the bow shock and transient, local ion reflection under unchanging solar wind conditions. Dayside magnetopause reconnection produces flux transfer events driving fast-mode wave fronts in the magnetosheath. These fronts push out the bow shock surface due to their increased downstream pressure. The resulting bow shock deformations lead to a configuration favourable to localized ion reflection and thus the formation of transient, travelling foreshock-like field-aligned ion beams. This is identified in two-dimensional global magnetospheric hybrid-Vlasov simulations of the Earth's magnetosphere performed using the Vlasiator model (http://vlasiator.fmi.fi). We also present observational data showing the occurrence of dayside reconnection and flux transfer events at the same time as Geotail observations of transient foreshock-like field-aligned ion beams. The spacecraft is located well upstream of the foreshock edge and the bow shock, during a steady southward interplanetary magnetic field and in the absence of any solar wind or interplanetary magnetic field perturbations. This indicates the formation of such localized ion foreshocks.

scholarly journals Flux Transfer Events: 1. generation mechanism for strong southward IMF

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Raeder
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Generation Process ◽  
Numerical Resolution ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Dayside Magnetopause ◽  
Semiannual Variation ◽  
Flux Transfer ◽  
Sequential Generation ◽  
The Magnetic Field ◽  
Dipole Tilt

Abstract. We use a global numerical model of the interaction of the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field with Earth's magnetosphere to study the formation process of Flux Transfer Events (FTEs) during strong southward IMF. We find that: (i) The model produces essentially all observational features expected for FTEs, in particular the bipolar signature of the magnetic field BN component, the correct polarity, duration, and intermittency of that bipolar signature, strong core fields and enhanced core pressure, and flow enhancements; (ii) FTEs only develop for large dipole tilt whereas in the case of no dipole tilt steady magnetic reconnection occurs at the dayside magnetopause; (iii) the basic process by which FTEs are produced is the sequential generation of new X-lines which makes dayside reconnection inherently time dependent and leads to a modified form of dual or multiple X-line reconnection; (iv) the FTE generation process in this model is not dependent on specific assumptions about microscopic processes; (v) the average period of FTEs can be explained by simple geometric arguments involving magnetosheath convection; (vi) FTEs do not develop in the model if the numerical resolution is too coarse leading to too much numerical diffusion; and (vii) FTEs for nearly southward IMF and large dipole tilt, i.e., near solstice, should only develop in the winter hemisphere, which provides a testable prediction of seasonal modulation. The semiannual modulation of intermittent FTE reconnection versus steady reconnection is also expected to modulate magnetospheric and ionospheric convection and may thus contribute to the semiannual variation of geomagnetic activity.

scholarly journals The ionospheric response to flux transfer events: the first few minutes

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 685-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Rodger ◽  
M. Pinnock
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Time Resolution ◽  
Hf Radar ◽  
High Time Resolution ◽  
Plasma Velocity ◽  
Ionospheric Response ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Velocity Variations ◽  
Flux Transfer ◽  
Field Lines

Abstract. We utilise high-time resolution measurements from the PACE HF radar at Halley, Antarctica to explore the evolution of the ionospheric response during the first few minutes after enhanced reconnection occurs at the magnetopause. We show that the plasma velocity increases associated with flux transfer events (FTEs) occur first ~100–200 km equatorward of the region to which magnetosheath (cusp) precipitation maps to the ionosphere. We suggest that these velocity variations start near the ionospheric footprint of the boundary between open and closed magnetic field lines. We show that these velocity variations have rise times ~100 s and fall times of ~10 s. When these velocity transients reach the latitude of the cusp precipitation, sometimes the equatorward boundary of the precipitation begins to move equatorward, the expected and previously reported ionospheric signature of enhanced reconnection. A hypothesis is proposed to explain the velocity variations. It involves the rapid outflow of magnetospheric electrons into the magnetosheath along the most recently reconnected field lines. Several predictions are made arising from the proposed explanation which could be tested with ground-based and space-based observations.

scholarly journals Simultaneous observations of magnetopause flux transfer events and of their associated signatures at ionospheric altitudes

2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 2181-2199 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. A. McWilliams ◽  
G. J. Sofko ◽  
T. K. Yeoman ◽  
S. E. Milan ◽  
D. G. Sibeck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Interplanetary Magnetic Field ◽  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Field Conditions ◽  
Transfer Event ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Subsolar Point ◽  
Reconnection Site ◽  
Flux Transfer

Abstract. An extensive variety of instruments, including Geotail, DMSP F11, SuperDARN, and IMP-8, were monitoring the dayside magnetosphere and ionosphere between 14:00 and 18:00 UT on 18 January 1999. The location of the instruments provided an excellent opportunity to study in detail the direct coupling between the solar wind, the magnetosphere, and the ionosphere. Flux transfer events were observed by Geotail near the magnetopause in the dawn side magnetosheath at about 4 magnetic local time during exclusively northward interplanetary magnetic field conditions. Excellent coverage of the entire dayside high-latitude ionosphere was achieved by the Northern Hemisphere SuperDARN radars. On the large scale, temporally and spatially, the dayside magnetosphere convection remained directly driven by the interplanetary magnetic field, despite the highly variable interplanetary magnetic field conditions, including long periods of northward field. The SuperDARN radars in the dawn sector also measured small-scale temporally varying convection velocities, which are indicative of flux transfer event activity, in the vicinity of the magnetic footprint of Geotail. DMSP F11 in the Southern Hemisphere measured typical cusp precipitation simultaneously with and magnetically conjugate to a single flux transfer event signature detected by Geotail. A study of the characteristics of the DMSP ion spectrogram revealed that the source plasma from the reconnection site originated downstream of the subsolar point. Detailed analyses of locally optimised coordinate systems for individual flux transfer events at Geotail are consistent with a series of flux tubes protruding from the magnetopause, and originating from a high-latitude reconnection site in the Southern Hemisphere. This high-latitude reconnection site agrees with plasma injected away from the subsolar point. This is the first simultaneous and independent determination from ionospheric and space-based data of the location of magnetic reconnection.

scholarly journals Flux transfer events on the high-latitude magnetopause: Interball-1 observations

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 3549-3559 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Sibeck ◽  
G. I. Korotova ◽  
V. Petrov ◽  
V. Styazhkin ◽  
T. J. Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Pressure Gradients ◽  
Field Orientation ◽  
Flux Transfer Events ◽  
Statistical Studies ◽  
Flux Transfer ◽  
Statistical Survey ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Marked Tendency

Abstract. We present case and statistical studies of flux transfer events (FTEs) observed by Interball-1 on the high-latitude magnetopause. The case studies provide observations of FTEs in the cusp during periods of southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientation and on the magnetopause poleward of the cusp during periods of strongly northward IMF orientation. We interpret the former in terms of reconnection on the equatorial magnetopause and subsequent antisunward motion of FTEs into the cusps. We interpret the latter in terms of bursty antiparallel merging on the high-latitude magnetopause. A statistical survey demonstrates that events observed equatorward of the cusp show a marked tendency to occur for antiparallel (northward) magnetospheric and (southward) magnetosheath magnetic field orientations, whereas events observed poleward of the cusps tend to occur for either strongly parallel or antiparallel configurations. We suggest that this discrepancy implies that events observed poleward of the cusps originate both locally and on the equatorial magnetopause. Finally, we use the sense of the bipolar signature and the prevailing magnetic field orientation to demonstrate that almost all events move antisunward, i.e. that at these latitudes pressure gradients determine the motion of FTEs and not magnetic curvature forces.

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