7/31/15, 2:30 PM
Prof.
Hantao Ji
(Princeton University)
8/10/15, 9:55 AM
Despite its disruptive influences on the large-scale structures of space
and solar
plasmas, the crucial topological changes and associated dissipation
during magnetic
reconnection take place only near an X-line within thin singular layers
on the electron
scales. While ion dissipation layers have been frequently detected, the
existence of
election layers near the X-line and the...
Prof.
Paolo Ricci
(CRPP, EPFL)
8/10/15, 11:10 AM
The methodology used to assess the reliability of numerical
simulation codes
constitutes the Verification and Validation (V&V) procedure.
V&V is composed by two
separate tasks: the verification process, which is a
mathematical issue targeted to
assess that the physical model is correctly solved by the
numerical code, and the
validation, which determines the consistency of the...
Dr
Andrey Divin
(St. Petersburg State University)
8/10/15, 11:35 AM
Electron diffusion region (EDR) is regarded as the key region of
collisionless magnetic
reconnection. Electrons are unmagnetized inside the EDR, and
magnetic field lines are detached
from plasma, allowing fast conversion of magnetic energy into energy
of plasma. Large-scale
kinetic simulations are required for understanding the EDR structure. In
this study, two-
dimensional...
Mr
Ivo Furno
(EPFL-CRPP)
8/10/15, 12:00 PM
Suprathermal ions with energies greater than the background
plasma species are
frequently observed during magnetic reconnection in
astrophysical and laboratory
plasmas. Understanding the interaction between turbulence
and suprathermal ions is a
fundamental problem to shed light on the physics governing
many plasma phenomena,
from particle dropouts during impulsive solar energetic...
Dr
Sergio Servidio
(University of Calabria)
8/10/15, 2:00 PM
Systematic analysis of numerical simulations of two-dimensional
magnetohydrodynamic
(2D MHD) turbulence reveals the presence of a large number of X-type
neutral points,
where magnetic reconnection locally occurs [1]. The associated
reconnection rates are
distributed over a wide range of values and scales, exhibiting a good
agreement with
existing theories of magnetic reconnection....
Ms
Cecilia Norgren
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics)
8/10/15, 2:25 PM
Lower hybrid waves in magnetic reconnection regions
Lower hybrid waves are strong plasma waves that are often excited
within thin boundaries that form
in the vicinity of magnetic reconnection regions. These waves can be
excited by sharp gradients in
the density that can form along the separatrices or at the front of
reconnection jets. The wave
length scale is on the order of the...
Dr
Narita Yasuhito
(Austrian Academy of Sciences)
8/10/15, 2:50 PM
A wave-driven scenario of magnetic reconnection is
presented, the whistler-wave hypothesis, to
explain the triggering mechanism of the reconnection in
space and astrophysical plasmas.
Magnetic reconnection releases a huge amount of energy on
a short time scale, and is believed
to be in operation in the phenomena of auroral substorms,
flares, and coronal mass ejections.
The...
Dr
Huishan Fu
(Beihang University)
8/10/15, 3:45 PM
In this study, we apply a new method—the first-order Taylor expansion
(FOTE)—to
find magnetic nulls and reconstruct magnetic field topology, in order to
use it with
the data from the forth-coming MMS mission. We compare this method
with the
previously used Poincare index (PI), and find that they are generally
consistent,
except that the PI method can only find a null inside the...
Elin Eriksson
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden and Uppsala University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala, Sweden)
8/10/15, 4:10 PM
Regions with vanishing magnetic field, also referred to as
magnetic nulls, are of high
interest in plasma physics. Near magnetic nulls particles
become unmagnetized and
can by interacting with electric fields be accelerated up to
high energies. Magnetic
nulls have been observed and studied before using in-situ
observations for selected
events. Here we present the first...
Dr
Vyacheslav Olshevsky
(KU Leuven)
8/10/15, 4:35 PM
Fully kinetic electromagnetic particle-in-cell code iPic3D is used to
model magnetic reconnection in
the
variety of plasma configurations. We apply Poincare index technique to
locate and identify the
topological characteristics of the magnetic null points in different three-
dimensional simulations.
The relevance of magnetic nulls to energy dissipation, turbulence and
plasma...
Prof.
Klaus Galsgaard
(Niels Bohr Institute - University of Copenhagen)
8/11/15, 9:00 AM
Magnetic flux emergence is a very important process in
renewing the magnetic field of the solar corona. As new
magnetic flux emergence from below the photosphere and
reaches in to the corona, the situation for magnetic
reconnection are setup in the battle for space between
the old coronal magnetic field and the new emerging magnetic
field. Numerical MHD experiments investigate this...
Dr
Rumi Nakamura
(IWF/OEAW)
8/11/15, 9:30 AM
In the Earth's magnetotail, there are two preferred sites for the
magnetic
reconnection. One is in the distant tail usually beyond the lunar orbit,
and is
considered to be semi-permanently present. The other is in the near
tail at a
distance of a few tens of Earth radius (Re), where the magnetic
reconnection initially
involves closed-field lines in the plasma sheet and hence...
Dr
Daniel Graham
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics)
8/11/15, 10:15 AM
Magnetic reconnection enables the accelerating and heating of
electrons, leading to
the formation of electron distributions, which can be unstable to a
variety of
instabilities. For instance, magnetic reconnection can accelerate
electrons to form
beams and counter-streaming electron populations, as well as loss cone
distributions.
Additionally, at Earth’s magnetopause...
Maria Hamrin
(Umeå University)
8/11/15, 11:10 AM
In the vicinity of magnetic reconnection, magnetic energy is transferred
into kinetic
energy. Such a region hence corresponds to a electrical load and it
should manifest
itself as large and positive values of the power density, E.J>>0, where
E and J are
the electric field and the current density, respectively. From simple
theoretical
arguments we find that an event with...
Heli Hietala
(Imperial College London, UK)
8/11/15, 11:35 AM
Magnetic reconnection redistributes energy by releasing magnetic
energy into plasma
kinetic energy - high speed bulk flows, heating, and particle
acceleration. A
significant portion of the energy released by magnetotail reconnection
appears to go
into ion heating, and the heating is anisotropic with the plasma
temperature
parallel to the magnetic field generally increasing more...
Dr
Keizo Fujimoto
(National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
8/11/15, 12:00 PM
Understanding the wave properties in magnetic reconnection is very
important in
collisionless plasmas. The waves can transport the momentum and
energy between
the different species, resulting in the anomalous magnetic dissipation,
particle
heating, and the formation of non-thermal particles.
Observations in the Earth’s magnetosphere and laboratory
experiment have
shown...
Dr
Jonathan Eastwood
(Imperial College London)
8/11/15, 2:00 PM
Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes at work
in space
plasma environments, controlling energy storage, transport and
release. In
particular, it is crucial to the physics of the solar wind - magnetosphere
interaction
because it can explosively release stored energy, transforming it into
different forms
in the reconnection outflow. Magnetotail reconnection...
Dr
Sergio Toledo Redondo
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics)
8/11/15, 2:25 PM
Recent studies show that cold ions (energies up to tens of eV) of
ionospheric origin are present in
the magnetosphere and often reach the magnetopause, participating in
magnetic reconnection. At
low latitudes they are abundant and even dominate over the hot
magnetospheric ions. Owing to
their smaller gyroradius, they remain magnetized down to smaller
scales than the hot ions and...
Prof.
Quanming Lu
(University of Science and Technology of China)
8/11/15, 2:50 PM
A large scale two-dimensional (2-D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation is
performed in
this paper to investigate electron acceleration in the dipolarization front
(DF) region
during magnetic reconnection. It is found that the DF is mainly driven
by an ion
outflow which also generates a positive potential region behind the DF.
The DF
propagates with an almost constant speed and...
Dr
Philip Pritchett
(University of California, Los Angeles)
8/11/15, 3:45 PM
Magnetic reconnection is widely accepted as the driver of dynamics in
the Earth’s
magnetotail despite the difficulty in understanding how reconnection
can be initiated in
a current sheet with curved magnetic field lines associated with a small
normal B_z
component. In particular, reconnection is the favored mechanism for
explaining the
generation of bursty bulk flows and...
Dr
Yuri Khotyaintsev
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics)
8/11/15, 4:10 PM
We use multi-spacecraft observations by Cluster and MMS in the
magnetotail and 3D PIC simulations to investigate conversion of
electromagnetic energy at the front of a fast plasma jet. Such plasma
jet can be produced as a result of magnetic reconnection.
Jet fronts are known to have a sharp increase of magnetic field
(referred to as dipolarization fronts in the magnetospheric...
Dr
Mikhail Sitnov
(JHU/APL)
8/11/15, 4:25 PM
Magnetic reconnection in the Earth’s magnetotail has important
features that distinguish it from
similar
processes in other space plasma regions, laboratory plasmas and in the
simplest theoretical models.
First, the
very possibility of spontaneous reconnection has been questioned
because of the stabilizing effect of
electrons
magnetized by the north-south (Bz) magnetic field...
Prof.
Merav Opher
(Boston University)
8/12/15, 9:00 AM
Dr
Kenichi Nishikawa
(Univerisyt of Alabama in Huntsville)
8/12/15, 9:30 AM
We investigated particle acceleration and shock structure
associated with an
unmagnetized relativistic jet propagating into an
unmagnetized plasma. Strong
magnetic fields generated in the trailing shock contribute to
the electron’s
transverse deflection and acceleration. Kinetic Kelvin-
Helmholtz instability (kKHI)
is also responsible to create strong DC and AC magnetic
fields....
Prof.
Nikolai Pogorelov
(Department of Space Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville)
8/12/15, 9:55 AM
Recent simulations of the solar wind (SW) interaction with the local
interstellar medium
(LISM) performed by our team showed that the heliopause is the
subject of various
hydrodynamic instabilities which allow for an efficient, but spotty,
mixing of the SW
and LISM plasmas. The analysis of the coupling between the
heliospheric and
interstellar magnetic fields (HMF and ISMF) shows...
Dr
Jiayong Zhong
(Department of Astronomy, Beijing Normal University)
8/12/15, 11:10 AM
Laser driven magnetic reconnection (LDMR) is constructed with self-
generated B fields
has been experimentally and theoretically studied extensively, where
more than
Mega-Gauss strong B fields are spontaneously generated in high-power
laser-plasma
interactions, which located on the target surface and produced by non-
parallel
temperature and density gradients of expanding...
Prof.
Axel Brandenburg
(Nordita)
8/12/15, 11:35 AM
Using direct numerical simulations of three-dimensional hydromagnetic
turbulence,
either with helical or non-helical forcing, we show that the ratio of
kinetic-to-magnetic energy dissipation always increases with the
magnetic Prandtl
number, i.e., the ratio of kinematic viscosity to magnetic diffusivity.
This
dependence can be approximated by a power law, but the exponent is
not...
Prof.
Igor Rogachevskii
(Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Nordita)
8/12/15, 12:00 PM
We study different regimes of magnetic reconnection during formation
of bipolar structures using direct numerical simulations of the equations
of magnetohydrodynamics
with external random forcing and in the presence of gravity.
The domain is divided into two parts: a lower layer with the helical
forcing
and an upper layer with the non-helical forcing
with a smooth transition in...
Dr
Li-Jen Chen
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
8/12/15, 2:00 PM
The electron diffusion region (EDR) holds the ultimate mystery of how
magnetic
reconnection can occur in a collisionless plasma,
and is the target region of the first science priority for the newly
launched
Magnetospheric Multi-scale (MMS) mission.
Processes of elctron acceleration, mixing and heating in the EDR can be
understood by analyzing the electron distribution functions
with...
Dr
Rongsheng Wang
(Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
8/12/15, 2:25 PM
One long outstanding issue in the study of magnetic
reconnection is exactly where and how
electrons
are energized, although the observations have demonstrated
that a substantial part of magnetic
energy is converted into energetic electrons in reconnection.
Here, we present the first evidence of
electron acceleration by parallel electric field (up to -20
mV/m) carried by the...
Dr
Maria Elena Innocenti
(University of Leuven, Belgium)
8/12/15, 2:50 PM
We describe here the first observation of switch-off of the in plane
tangential
component of the magnetic field in Particle In Cell (PIC) simulations of
magnetic
reconnection, a situation reminding of Petschek’s switch-off. Switch-off
is obtained
through a slow shock / rotational discontinuity compound structure.
Two external slow
shocks located in correspondence of the...
Paul Cassak
(West Virginia University)
8/12/15, 3:45 PM
Magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause is a crucial facet
of solar
wind-magnetospheric coupling, as it drives magnetospheric convection
and is necessary
for magnetic energy storage in the magnetotail. Many fundamental
questions about
dayside reconnection remain insufficiently answered quantitatively and
even
qualitatively, such as the location and local efficiency of...
Prof.
Martin Goldman
(University of Colorado at Boulder)
8/12/15, 4:10 PM
The primary goal of the current NASA-MMS mission is to "identify and
study diffusion
regions during magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetopause and
magnetotail. Yet
the term diffusion region is often misunderstood and can be
ambiguous. Different
conditions for a region to be a "diffusion region" are interpreted
theoretically, related
to each other and applied to 2D PIC...
Prof.
Joerg Buechner
(Max-Planck-Institut fuer Sonnensystemforschung)
8/13/15, 9:00 AM
Magnetic reconnection is a multi-scale phenomenon which in
collisionless plasmas
involves electron and ion kinetic processes as well as macro-scale
plasma flows.
Only numerical simulation approaches allow to bridge the huge scale-
gaps between
the relevant particle and flow dynamics. We review the different
approaches taken
so far to cope with the arising difficulties and draw...
Prof.
Masahiro Hoshino
(The University of Tokyo)
8/13/15, 9:30 AM
Nonthermal particles are ubiquitous in space and astrophysical
plasmas, and
explosive phenomena such as supernova remnant shocks, solar flares,
and
terrestrial substroms have demonstrated evidence for the production of
high-energy
particles. Yet the particle acceleration mechanism remains an
unresolved issue.
After the innovative idea of the stochastic acceleration by Enrico...
Dr
Antonella Greco
(Physics Department, University of Calabria, Italy)
8/13/15, 10:15 AM
The intermittent properties of the turbulent field at different scales
down towards
electron scales have been studied using CLUSTER magnetic field data in
solar wind.
We found that turbulence, in some cases, orginizes itself in
unidimensional current
sheets well descibed by an Harris equilibrium on electron scales. These
structures
could be those structures that numerical...
Dr
Nobumitsu Yokoi
(Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo)
8/13/15, 11:10 AM
Turbulence modeling provides a powerful tool for investigating realistic
turbulence
with large-scale inhomogeneities. An attempt to study fast
reconnection with the aid
of self-consistent turbulence model is introduced. Turbulence related to
magnetic
reconnection is not homogeneous-isotropic at all. Its statistical
properties depend on
the large-scale configurations of the...
Prof.
Alexander Lazarian
(University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA)
8/13/15, 11:35 AM
Turbulence is a natural state of high Reynolds flows and is ubiquitous in
astrophysical
systems. In most cases turbulence is externally driven, but one also
expects the
outflows induced by reconnection to get turbulent. High resolution
numerical
resolution reconnection simulations in 3D also show the transition to
the turbulent
state. Therefore it is essential to understand how...
Alexandros Chasapis
(Laboratoire des Physiques des Plasmas)
8/13/15, 12:00 PM
We present an in situ study of thin current sheets and associated
electron heating in
turbulent space plasma. We use Cluster observations made in the
turbulent plasma
downstream of the Earth's quasi-parallel shock and we analyze the
properties of
ion-scale current sheets. Intermittent structures were identified using
the Partial
Variance of Increments method. We studied the...
Mr
Magic Zazralt
(Niels Bohr Institute)
8/13/15, 2:25 PM
Theoretical atmosphere models provide the basis for a variety of
applications for
astronomy. In one-dimensional (1D) atmosphere models, convection is
usually treated
with the mixing-length theory. However, this theory is by far not
flawless and the
superadiabatic regime is poorly rendered. Due to the increasing
computational power,
we are now capable to compute large grids of...
Ilja Honkonen
(NASA/GSFC)
8/13/15, 2:50 PM
Due to its multi-scale nature, magnetic reconnection is
difficult to model
numerically using a full electromagnetic description of plasma
in a system whose size
is orders of magnitude larger than the smallest relevant
spatial scales. In the
context of Earth's magnetosphere reconnection has been
modeled using a
magnetohydrodynamic description of plasma for decades
while kinetic...
Prof.
Minna Palmroth
(Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland)
8/13/15, 3:45 PM
Vlasiator (http://vlasiator.fmi.fi) is a newly developed, global hybrid-
Vlasov simulation, which
solves the six-dimensional phase space utilising the Vlasov equation for
protons, while electrons
are treated as a charge-neutralising fluid. The outcome of the
simulation is a global reproduction
of ion-scale physics where the generation of physical features can be
followed in time...
Dr
Stefano Markidis
(KTH)
8/13/15, 4:10 PM
We present the first 3D global simulation of Ganymede’s
magnetosphere in a unified framework coupling the fluid and kinetic
models. An MHD model describes the global interaction of solar wind
with Ganymede’s magnetosphere over the whole simulation domain. A
kinetic model is used only in the selected space regions, where kinetic
effects dominate and MHD description fails. In...
Dr
Stefan Eriksson
(University of Colorado)
8/14/15, 9:00 AM
Hall currents generate a characteristic quadrupole out-of-plane
magnetic field at a
single X-line for a weak background guide-field and relatively
symmetric conditions
of plasma density and magnetic field strength across a reconnecting
current sheet.
This is observed as a bipolar perturbation of the out-of-plane magnetic
field (BM)
across the exhaust region as, e.g., reported...
Prof.
Viggo Hansteen
(Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo)
8/14/15, 10:15 AM
We have performed three-dimensional (3d)
magnetohydrodynamic simulations of
magnetic flux emergence in a model that spans the
convection zone and into the outer
solar atmosphere with the Bifrost code. This is a ``realistic''
model, in the sense that
the parameters and physical effects that control the
atmosphere can be used to
produce diagnostics that can be directly compared...
Dr
Daniel Kagan
(Tel Aviv University)
8/14/15, 11:10 AM
We investigate the beaming of particles and the resulting synchrotron radiation in
relativistic reconnection with background magnetizations of 4, 40, and 400 via 2D
particle-in-cell simulations. First, we verify that the overall rate of energy
conversion and the characteristics of radiation are similar at all magnetizations
even for configurations including low-density background plasmas,...
Mr
fabien widmer
(Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Germany)
8/14/15, 11:35 AM
Magnetic reconnection is a very efficient process to convert magnetic
energy into
kinetic plasma energy. Unfortunately, models of reconnection such as
Sweet Parker, do
not agree with the time scale observed during the impulsive phase of a
Solar flares,
providing only small reconnection rates. One possible approach for
reaching fast
reconnection observed is by considering small...
Sanni Hoilijoki
(Finnish Meteorological Institute)
8/14/15, 12:00 PM
The global hybrid-Vlasov simulation Vlasiator
(http://vlasiator.fmi.fi), developed at
the Finnish Meteorological Institute, describes ions as velocity
distributions
functions propagated by solving the Vlasov equation and
treats electrons as
charge-neutralizing fluid. We present results from a new 5-
dimensional simulation
describing the Earth's magnetosphere in two dimensions in...
Dr
Gian Luca Delzanno
(Los Alamos National Laboratory)
8/14/15, 2:00 PM
The Vlasov-Maxwell equations are a fundamental model for the
microscopic evolution of
magnetized, collisionless plasmas. Because of the wide disparity of
spatial and
temporal scales typical of plasmas, their numerical solution is
extremely challenging
and is a very active area of research.
There are three main numerical approaches to the solution of the...
Yann Pfau-Kempf
(Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland)
8/14/15, 2:25 PM
The Finnish Meteorological Institute's hybrid-Vlasov model
Vlasiator
(http://vlasiator.fmi.fi), which couples kinetic ion physics
through Vlasov's
equation with charge-neutralising fluid electrons, is used to
model self-consistently
the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction in two spatial and
three velocity
dimensions. Recent simulations in the polar plane include
southward IMF in...
Mr
Rishi Mistry
(Imperial College London)
8/14/15, 2:50 PM
Magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause and magnetotail
affect many magnetospheric
dynamics including the onset of magnetospheric sub-storms
and space weather effects, and the
balance of energy in the magnetosphere. In these
environments, however, asymmetric boundary
conditions and imprecise knowledge of the motion of
reconnection exhausts relative to spacecraft
affect the...
Dr
Jane Pratt
(University of Exeter Astrophysics)
8/14/15, 3:45 PM
When a fusion plasma is above a critical value of beta,
neoclassical tearing modes
are destabilized. The resulting magnetic islands can grow to
large size, allowing
fast escape of the plasma from the fusion machine. The
primary tactic for preventing
tearing modes and reducing the size of magnetic islands in
fusion machines is to
apply current inside the magnetic islands. In...
Dr
nicolas aunai
(CNRS/LPP)
8/14/15, 4:10 PM
Collisionless magnetic reconnection is enabled by electron
scale mechanisms and its
dynamic is mainly controlled by ion scale processes.
Whenever the to plasmas on both
sides of the current sheet have different properties, a lot of
well-known processes and
their associated signatures are vastly changed. In this
presentation, I will explain how
one can highlight the regions of...
Ms
Elisabet Liljeblad
(Space and Plasma Physics, The Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Stockholm)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
The low-latitude boundary layer is a region where a constant transfer of mass and
energy takes place. The layer has been studied extensively on Earth, but so far no
comprehensive study on the layer on Mercury exists. This study aims for a systematic
analysis on Mercury magnetopause crossings during year 2011 to identify and analyse
the LLBL and its properties, including thickness,...
Dr
Daniel Kagan
(Tel Aviv University)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
We investigate the acceleration of particles beyond the synchrotron burnoff limit of
the background magnetic field in relativistic magnetic reconnection by analysing the
effects of radiative cooling on test particles incident on a large reconnection
region in a 2D particle-in-cell simulation. We find that the trajectories of the
particles are not significantly affected by cooling while...
Mr
Jeremy Dargent
(CNRS/LPP/IRAP)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
Tangential current layers are ubiquitous in the Universe.They appear in magnetized
collisionless plasmas as a result of the Frozen-in law and the conservation of field line
connectivity. However, there are few steady kinetic descriptions of them and most of
these describe symmetric layers. The BAS model (Belmont et al. 20132) is a semi-
analytical model which provides a steady ion...
Dr
Alessandro Retinò
(Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, Palaiseau, France)
Workshop, August 10-14
Invited
The microphysics of magnetic reconnection (i.e. the physics at proton
scales and below) is one of
the most important aspects of reconnection and the target of the
recently launched NASA/MMS
mission. Among different open issues related to the microphysics,
understanding the mechanisms of
particle heating and acceleration is one of the most important. The
Earth’s magnetopause is an...
Dr
Mikhail Belyaev
(Theoretical Astrophysics Center UC Berkeley Astronomy Department)
Workshop, August 10-14
Oral
We perform 2.5D axisymmetric simulations of the pulsar
magnetosphere (aligned
dipole rotator) using the charge conservative, relativistic,
electromagnetic particle
in cell code PICsar. Particle in cell codes are a powerful tool to
use for studying the
pulsar magnetosphere, because they can handle the force-
free and vacuum limits
and provide a self-consistent treatment of...
Dr
YongCun Zhang
(State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, Center for Space Science and Applied Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
We report first results of magnetic curvature distribution in the diffusion region
of a unique magnetic reconnection event. This event is exceptional since all four
Cluster spacecraft is crossing the diffusion region. Magnetic curvature analysis
shows that magnetic field lines are sharply curved with high curvature in the
inner outflow regions between the two Hall regions and display...
John Dorelli
(NASA-GSFC)
Workshop, August 10-14
Invited
Recent high resolution global magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
simulations of Earth's
magnetosphere [Komar et al., 2013, Glocer et al., 2015] suggest that
dayside
magnetopause reconnection occurs at topological separators that
extend across the
entire dayside -- stretching from one polar cusp to the other -- for both
northward
and southward Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) conditions....
Mr
Xuehan Guo
(The University of Tokyo)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
Magnetic reconnection plays a fundamental role in magnetized plasmas because it
permits magnetic configurations to changes the magnetic field line topology
releasing magnetic stress and energy.
Localized electron heating of magnetic reconnection was studied under strong guide-
field using two merging spherical tokamak plasmas in Univ. Tokyo Spherical Tokamak
(UTST) experiment. Our new...
Mr
Chris Elenbaas
(University of Amsterdam)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
Transient giant gamma-ray flares comprise the most extreme radiation events to have been
observed from magnetars. Developing on (sub)millisecond timescales and expelling vast amounts of
energy within a mere fraction of a second, the initial phase of these extraordinary bursts present a
significant challenge for candidate trigger mechanisms. Here we revise and critically analyse the...
Dr
Huishan Fu
(Beihang University)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
A magnetic reconnection event detected by Cluster is analyzed using three methods:
single-spacecraft inference, multi-spacecraft timing, and the first-order Taylor
expansion (FOTE). Using single-spacecraft method, we find that the structure is a
reconnection X-line; while using timing and FOTE analyses, we find it is a magnetic
island (O-line). We conclude that the best and fast way to...
Dr
Shiyong Huang
(Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique-UPMC, Palaiseau, France)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process that enables the rapid transfer of
magnetic energy into plasma kinetic and thermal energy in the laboratory, astrophysical and space
plasma. Flux ropes have been suggested to play important role in controlling the micro-scale
physics of magnetic reconnection and electron acceleration. In this presentation, we report the...
Dr
Yi-Hsin Liu
(NASA-GSFC)
Workshop, August 10-14
Oral
At Earth's magnetopause, reconnection proceeds
asymmetrically between magnetosheath
plasmas, namely solar wind plasmas compressed by Earth's
bow shock, and
magnetospheric plasmas. In an asymmetric configuration, it
is unclear if there is a
simple principle to determine the orientation of the x-line.
Using fully kinetic
simulations, we study this issue and a spatially localized...
Mr
Bart Ripperda
(KU Leuven)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
Particle acceleration due to interacting tilt and kink instabilities in repelling current channels
B. Ripperda, R. Keppens
Centre for mathematical Plasma-Astrophysics, Department of Mathematics, KU Leuven
We present a numerical study where we use a combination of resistive magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) and test-particle methods to analyze particle acceleration in two repelling current...
Prof.
Nagendra Singh
(University of Alabama in Huntsville)
Workshop, August 10-14
Oral
We study the evolution of an electron current layer (ECL)
through its several
stages by means of three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC)
simulations with ion
to electron mass ratio M/me =400. An ECL evolves through
the following stages:
(i) Electrostatic (ES) current-driven instability (CDI) soon
after its formation with
half width w about 2 electron skin depth (de), (ii)...
Prof.
Mats André
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
Magnetospheric ions with energies less than tens of eV originate from the
ionosphere. The low energy indicates the origin of the plasma but also severely
complicates detection of the positive ions onboard sunlit spacecraft at higher
altitudes, which often become positively charged to several tens of volts. We discuss
some methods to observe low-energy ions, including a recently...
Mr
Boris Gudiksen
(Inst for theoretical astrophysics, University of Oslo)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
The solar atmosphere shows signs of almost continuous reconnection events
happening, producing energy releases over a large range in energy. The reconnection
events are fast, efficient but so far not explained in detail. We observe the effects of
reconnection both in low and high plasma beta environments. Observational data on
accelerated particles, radiation in a wide range of...
Dr
Suleiman Baraka
(Al Aqsa University, Gaza Palestine. + IAP-UPMC, Paris, France)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
We apply three IMF orientations along with an artificial depression in the solar dynamic pressure to
study their impacts on the cusp dynamics and orientation. PIC EM Relativistic code was used to
investigate the problem in hand. Particles and fields updates are carefully studied at both northern
and southern cusps. The size, position and shape of the both cusps under the said conditions...
Dr
A. Vaivads
(Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
The acceleration of energetic electrons inside magnetic pile-up regions
of plasma jets in the Earth
magnetotail is studied in details for one case observed by Cluster. The
case has been selected based
on high observed fluxes of electrons, Cluster being in the burst mode
and Cluster separation being
around 1000 km that is optimal for studies of ion scale physics. We
show that...
Dr
Maria Elena Innocenti
(Center for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, Department of Mathematics, K.U. Leuven (University of Leuven), Celestijnenlaan 200B, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium)
Workshop, August 10-14
Poster
Magnetic reconnection is an intrinsically multi-scale phenomenon. At least at a first approximation,
it is possible to pinpoint areas where processes occur at different spatial and temporal scales, such
as the inflow region, the Ion Diffusion Region and the Electron Diffusion Region (EDR).
This can be used to lower the computational cost of Particle In Cell, realistic mass ratio...
