Measures of Magnetic Reconnection at the Dayside Magnetopause

Abstract:

There is ongoing debate regarding whether local or global effects predominantly control magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause. The ability to address this in global magnetospheric simulations has advanced recently, where possible locations of magnetic reconnection can be identified by locating magnetic separators, the locations at the boundary among solar wind, closed, and open magnetic flux. In the present study, we identify magnetic separators at the dayside magnetopause in global magnetospheric resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations for various solar wind and magnetospheric conditions. We study the distribution of reconnection along the separator using the parallel electric field and compare it with local analyses of reconnection from upstream plasma parameters.