2021 International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA) | 2021
Particle-In-Cell Simulations of Magnetotail Dipolarizations Guided by Local Plasma Observations and Magnetometer Data Mining
Abstract
The process of sudden changes of the magnetic field topology in the night side of the magnetosphere, a global magnetic bubble shielding our planet from the flow of solar wind particles, is simulated for the first time using several important observational constraints. In particular, mining of substorm magnetic field data reveals the formation of two X-lines preceded by the flux accumulation at the tailward end of a thin current sheet with the half-thickness comparable to the thermal ion gyroradius [1]. 3D Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations guided by these pre-onset reconnection features are performed, taking also into account weak external driving, negative charging of the current sheet and domination of electrons as current carriers.