Magnetohydrodynamic with embedded particle‐in‐cell simulation of the Geospace Environment Modeling dayside kinetic processes challenge event
File(s)2020EA001331.pdf (14.16 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We use the MHD with embedded particle‐in‐cell model (MHD‐EPIC) to study the Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) dayside kinetic processes challenge event at 01:50‐03:00 UT on 2015‐11‐18, when the magnetosphere was driven by a steady southward IMF. In the MHD‐EPIC simulation, the dayside magnetopause is covered by a PIC code so that the dayside reconnection is properly handled. We compare the magnetic fields and the plasma profiles of the magnetopause crossing with the MMS3 spacecraft observations. Most variables match the observations well in the magnetosphere, in the magnetosheath, and also during the current sheet crossing. The MHD‐EPIC simulation produces flux ropes, and we demonstrate that some magnetic field and plasma features observed by the MMS3 spacecraft can be reproduced by a flux rope crossing event. We use an algorithm to automatically identify the reconnection sites from the simulation results. It turns out that there are usually multiple X‐lines at the magnetopause. By tracing the locations of the X‐lines, we find the typical moving speed of the X‐line endpoints is about 70~km/s, which is higher than but still comparable with the ground‐based observations.
Date Issued
2020-11
Date Acceptance
2020-08-30
Citation
Earth and Space Science, 2020, 7 (11), pp.1-15
ISSN
2333-5084
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Start Page
1
End Page
15
Journal / Book Title
Earth and Space Science
Volume
7
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
©2020. The Authors.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Identifier
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020EA001331
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-09-18