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Data · dataset · 2026

Unsteady magnetopause reconnection under quasi-steady solar wind driving

Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research

The intrinsic temporal nature of magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause has been an active area of research.

Description

Both temporally steady and intermittent reconnection have been reported. We examine the steadiness of reconnection using space-ground conjunctions under quasi-steady solar wind driving.

The spacecraft suggests that reconnection is first inactive, and then activates. The radar further suggests that after activation, reconnection proceeds continuously but unsteadily. The reconnection electric field shows variations at frequencies below 10 mHz with peaks at 3 and 5 mHz.

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The variation amplitudes are similar to 10-30 mV/m in the ionosphere, and 0.3-0.8 mV/m at the equatorial magnetopause. Such amplitudes represent 30%-60% of the peak reconnection electric field. The unsteadiness of reconnection can be plausibly explained by the fluctuating magnetic field in the turbulent magnetosheath.

A comparison with a previous global hybrid simulation suggests that it is the foreshock waves that drive the magnetosheath fluctuations, and hence modulate the reconnection.

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Geophysics 72% · Simulation 75%
Provenance · 1 source records, 9 field assertions
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National Center for Atmospheric Research76885050-0446-450f-8f97-cf1f44b6773713 d agoJSON v1
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concepts[method].local:method:simulationenrichment · data ucar edukeyword-concept-rules@1.0.0title+description (75%)
created_datesource · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0
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updated_datesource · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0