Identification

Title

Complexities of a 3-D plasmoid flux rope as shown by an MHD simulation

Abstract

The results of a global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of a pair of magnetospheric substorms on 11 August 2002 are presented. Comparisons of data with simulation results reveal a good agreement regarding the sequence of events during substorm development. We give particular emphasis to results in the simulation of a flux rope formed during the second substorm. Unlike standard 2-D depictions of reconnection and plasmoid release during the substorm sequence, the simulation shows a highly complex structure that has considerable winding of both closed and open field lines. Additionally, the simulated flux rope does not move tailward uniformly, but rather it has asymmetric motion in which the dawn flank portion moves tailward prior to the dusk portion of the flux rope. This results in a skewed flux rope structure that runs almost parallel to the tail axis instead of perpendicular to it. The simulation compares well with both prior flux rope simulations as well as satellite observations of flux ropes. We use the global simulation to map flux tube properties to the ionosphere, which allows the complexity of the mapping of the magnetic field structure from the tail to the ionosphere to be seen in a novel manner.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7w0964w

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-12-05T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact