HR: 15:10h
AN: SM23D-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Magnetopause Shape and Polar Cap Potential Under Large Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure
AU: * Cable, S
EM: sam.b.cable@erdc.usace.army.mil
AF: ERDC Major Shared Resource Center, US Army ERDC CEERD-IH 3909 Halls Ferry Rd., Vicksburg, MS 39180, United States
AU: Lin, C S
EM: chin.lin@us.af.mil
AF: Air Force Research Lab, Space Vehicles Directorate, Hanscom AFB, Bedford, MA 01731, United States
AB: We use three-dimensional MHD (magnetohydrodynamics) simulations to study the shape of the day side magnetopause under conditions of relatively large solar wind dynamic pressure (around or above 10nPa). Our MHD code is a finite-difference code accurate to second order in space and time and solves the MHD equations on a spherical coordinate grid. We produce a simulated magnetosphere by running the code in constant solar wind conditions and allow the solution to asymptotically approach a near-constant solution. The magnetopause shape is determined by locating the last closed field lines in the GSE x-y plane at various azimuthal angles. The subsolar radius of the magnetopause agrees well with published models. More extensive details on the shape of the magnetopause off the subsolar line will be reported. From the extent of the magnetopause on the equatorial flanks, we also estimate the dawn-to-dusk electric field potential across the magnetopause.
DE: 2724 Magnetopause and boundary layers
DE: 2731 Magnetosphere: outer
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting