HR: 11:05h
AN: SM52A-04    [Abstracts]
TI: FTE Structures and Dynamics from Global MHD Simulations and Cluster Multi-Spacecraft Observations
AU: * Wang, Y
EM: ywang@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Birn, J
EM: jbirn@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Elphic, R C
EM: relphic@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Raeder, J
EM: j.raeder@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, 245G Morse Hall 39 College Road, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AU: Lavraud, B
EM: lavraud@lanl.gov
AF: University of New Hampshire, 245G Morse Hall 39 College Road, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AU: Zhang, X
EM: xxzhang@spaceweather.ac.cn
AF: Center for Space Science and Applied Research, P.O. Box 8701, Beijing, 100080 China
AB: Flux transfer events (FTEs) are patchy, transient reconnection process on the magnetopause, which play an important role for the transfer of mass, momentum, and energy from the solar wind into the Earth's magnetosphere. The structures and dynamics of FTEs carry important information about the effectiveness and influence of such coupling. However, conventional observations with single satellites and simulations with restricted spatial ranges and resolutions have significant limitations for understanding these important properties of FTEs. Recent progress in both FTE observations with multi-spacecraft and FTE simulations with significantly improved global MHD models provides great help to overcome these difficulties and advance our understanding of FTEs. In this study, we use Open-GGCM global FTE simulation results to investigate the patterns of the observed FTE signatures and compare them with the results of earlier simplified FTE models. We found that the simulated FTE observational features are controlled by many factors and they are different from the results from simplified models. Further, we study the typical patterns of Cluster FTEs and compare them with simulation results, from which we find many consistencies. Many of the features of FTE signatures do not fit conventional FTE definitions with Bn bi-polar signature and magnetic field magnitude enhancement. The results of this study provide important information to understand FTE structures and dynamics, and help understand how to make better FTE identifications based on spacecraft near-magnetopause signatures.
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 2724 Magnetopause and boundary layers
DE: 2728 Magnetosheath
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
DE: 7859 Transport processes
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005