Burkholder, BrandonChen, Li-JenSorathia, KareemSciola, AnthonyMerkin, SlavaTrattner, Karlheinz J.Gershman, DanielMa, XuanyeConnor, Hyunju2023-07-212023-07-212023-07-18Burkholder 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.2023.1175697https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2023.1175697http://hdl.handle.net/11603/28832High-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.13 pagesen-USThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Text