Studying magnetopause reconnection using the FOTE method

Abstract:

FOTE is a method developed to find magnetic nulls and reconstruct field topology of linear magnetic structures; it is particularly useful to the four-spacecraft mission with small separation (e.g., MMS). In this talk, we will show how we apply this method to the MMS data and what results we can obtain from this method. Specifically, we study the flux transfer events (FTEs) and flux ropes at magnetopause, the hot flow anomalies (HFAs) in the magnetosheath, and the X-lines inside electron diffusion region. We reconstruct the topologies of these structures (FTEs, X-lines, and flux ropes). Also, we reveal the electron distributions and waves (particularly whistler-mode waves) around these structures. The new findings we obtain include: (1) X-lines inside the electron diffusion region; (2) numerous flux ropes inside the ion diffusion region; (3) strong whistler waves inside the electron diffusion region around X-lines; (4) crescent electron distributions around X-lines; (5) electron trapping by magnetic mirrors in the magnetosheath; (6) slow-mode waves in compression region of HFAs; and (7) the strong quadrupolar Hall magnetic fields in the guide-field asymmetric reconnection.