HR: 0800h
AN: SM51A-09    [Abstracts]
TI: Global Magnetic Structure and Convection of a Northward IMF Reconnection Event
AU: * Wendel, D E
EM: dew52@columbia.edu
AF: Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005, United States
AU: Reiff, P H
AF: Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005, United States
AU: Dorelli, J C
EM: john.dorelli@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire Space Science Center, 39 College Rd., Durham, NH 03824, United States
AU: Anderson, B J
EM: brian.anderson@jhuapl.edu
AF: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd, Laurel, MD 20723, United States
AU: Heelis, R A
EM: heelis@utdallas.edu
AF: The University of Texas at Dallas William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences, P.O. Box 830688 , Richardson, TX 75083-0688, United States
AB: In this study we explore the global structure of a northward IMF reconnection event observed by the Cluster and IMAGE spacecraft on March 18, 2002. In a previous paper we analyzed magnetic field and electron and ion moments to infer the instantaneous structure and size or a reconnection site local to the null region. Using simulation studies, DMSP data, and Iridium data, we examine the same event not at Cluster spacecraft separation and magnetopause thickness length scales, but at global separator length scales. The simulations posit a separator at the position of the Cluster spacecraft and 3-D nulls near the position of Cluster. We also find that the low-altitude satellite data support sunward ionospheric convection in a region that maps along field lines to both the position of Cluster as well as the magnetopause location of the large-scale separator seen in resistive MHD simulations. From this we are able to support the simulation results and determine a lower limit to the size of the reconnection region. Having established faith in the simulation results, we can establish an upper limit on the size of the reconnection site and we tie the observed convection pattern to the separator structure. We will then compare the simulated separator structure to previous simulations and observations of global anti- parallel and component reconnection.
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 2724 Magnetopause and boundary layers
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions (2431)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly