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https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2300
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2300
23 Oct 2023
 | 23 Oct 2023

Finding reconnection lines and flux rope axes via local coordinates in global ion-kinetic magnetospheric simulations

Markku Alho, Giulia Cozzani, Ivan Zaitsev, Fasil Tesema Kebede, Urs Ganse, Markus Battarbee, Maarja Bussov, Maxime Dubart, Sanni Hoilijoki, Leo Kotipalo, Konstantinos Papadakis, Yann Pfau-Kempf, Jonas Suni, Vertti Tarvus, Abiyot Workayehu, Hongyang Zhou, and Minna Palmroth

Abstract. Magnetic reconnection is a crucially important process for energy conversion in plasma physics, the substorm cycle of Earth's magnetosphere and solar flares being prime examples. While 2D models have been widely applied to study reconnection, investigating reconnection in 3D is still in many aspects an open problem. Finding sites of magnetic reconnection in a 3D setting is not a trivial task, with several approaches from topological skeletons to Lorentz transformations proposed to tackle the issue. This work presents a complementary method by noting that the magnetic field structures near reconnection lines exhibit two-dimensional features that can be identified in a suitably chosen local coordinate system. We present applications of this method to a hybrid-Vlasov Vlasiator simulation of the Earth's magnetosphere, showing the complex magnetic topologies created by reconnection. We also overview the dimensionalities of magnetic field structures in the simulation to support the use of such coordinate systems.

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Journal article(s) based on this preprint

16 May 2024
Finding reconnection lines and flux rope axes via local coordinates in global ion-kinetic magnetospheric simulations
Markku Alho, Giulia Cozzani, Ivan Zaitsev, Fasil Tesema Kebede, Urs Ganse, Markus Battarbee, Maarja Bussov, Maxime Dubart, Sanni Hoilijoki, Leo Kotipalo, Konstantinos Papadakis, Yann Pfau-Kempf, Jonas Suni, Vertti Tarvus, Abiyot Workayehu, Hongyang Zhou, and Minna Palmroth
Ann. Geophys., 42, 145–161, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-42-145-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-42-145-2024, 2024
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The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.

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In detailed space plasma simulations, finding and characterizing magnetic reconnection sites and...
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