The complexity of the day-side X-line during southward interplanetary magnetic field

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https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspas.2023.1175697/full

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https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2023.1175697
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/28832

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UMBC Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute (GPHI)
UMBC Faculty Collection

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8702-5806

Date

2023-07-18

Type of Work

journal articles
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Citation of Original Publication

Burkholder BL, Chen L-J, Sorathia K, Sciola A, Merkin S, Trattner KJ, Gershman D, Ma X and Connor H (2023). The complexity of the day-side X-line during southward interplanetary magnetic field. Front. Astron. Space Sci. 10:1175697. doi: 10.3389/fspas.2023.1175697

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Abstract

High-resolution global magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations include both meso- and global-scale processes occurring at the magnetopause, which interact to determine the time-dependent orientation of the day-side x-line (DXL). This study demonstrates that the global orientation of the DXL in GAMERA global MHD simulations varies on a time scale of minutes during steady southward interplanetary magnetic field conditions. This behavior manifests in observational data when reconnection outflows indicate that the direction to the x-line is opposite to the prediction from a steady-state model of the reconnection location. Because steady-state models of the DXL do not capture dynamics that are independent of solar wind variations, particularly surface waves and flux transfer events, they represent a time-averaged state of the system.