HR: 0800h
AN: SM51B-0533    [Abstracts]
TI: Studies of Magnetotail Dynamics and Energy Evolution During Substorms Using MHD Simulations
AU: * Brogl, S
EM: sbrogl@fit.edu
AF: Department of Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, United States
AU: Lopez, R E
EM: relopez@uta.edu
AF: Department of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, United States
AU: Wiltberger, M
EM: wiltbemj@ucar.edu
AF: HAO, NCAR, Boulder, CO 80301, United States
AB: Substorms are an important part of magnetotail dynamics that occur in response to increased energy input from the solar wind. The amount and evolution of the energy contained in the magnetotail over the course of a substorm is very difficult to determine with single point measurements. We have therefore used the Lyon-Fedder- Mobarry global magnetohydrodynamic code to simulate and analyze substorms that occured on March 9, 1995, December 10, 1996, and August 27, 2001. These events have been studied previously, and the simulation results have been shown to reproduce important features of the substorms. We calculate the total energy in the closed field line region and show that the time evolution of this quantity has the same pattern in all three events. The energy of the closed field line region decreases during the growth phase and increases during the expansion phase. We will discuss our results in terms of the relative timing of the onset of magnetotail reconnection on both closed and open field lines.
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 2788 Magnetic storms and substorms (7954)
DE: 2790 Substorms
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting