Search

The LEXI and SMILE missions will provide soft X‐ray images of the Earth's magnetosheath and cusps after their anticipated launch in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The IBEX mission showed the potential of an Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) instrument to image dayside magnetosheath and cusps, albeit over the long hours required to raster an image with a single pixel imager. Thus, it is timely to discuss the two imaging techniques and relevant science topics. We simulate soft X‐ray and low‐ENA images that might be observed by a virtual spacecraft during two interesting solar wind scenarios: a southward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field and a sudden enhancement of the solar wind dynamic pressure. We employ the OpenGGCM global magnetohydrodynamics model and a simple exospheric neutral density model for these calculations. Both the magnetosheath and the cusps generate strong soft X‐rays and ENA signals that can be used to extract the locations and motions of the bow shock and magnetopause. Magnetopause erosion corresponds closely to the enhancement of dayside reconnection rate obtained from the OpenGGCM model, indicating that images can be used to understand global‐scale magnetopause reconnection. When dayside imagers are installed with high‐ENA inner‐magnetosphere and FUV/UV aurora imagers, we can trace the solar wind energy flow from the bow shock to the magnetosphere and then to the ionosphere in a self‐standing manner without relying upon other observatories. Soft X‐ray and/or ENA imagers can also unveil the dayside exosphere density structure and its response to space weather., Key Points Soft X‐ray and Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) imaging instruments provide an innovative way to visualize the global solar wind‐magnetosphere interactionHigh‐cadence, wide field‐of‐view soft X‐ray, and ENA images can capture the motion of the bow shock and magnetopauseThe magnetopause motion can reveal the magnetopause reconnection mode on a global scale

Challenges to studying the ionosphere’s ability to conduct electrical currents undercut scientists’ efforts to improve space weather forecasting models. Let’s tackle them together.

Entire fields of science, most notably in astrophysics, rely on line-of-sight observations. In planetary science and heliophysics, the techniques of soft X-ray and energetic neutral atom (ENA) imaging also produce line-of-sight measurements. An important question is whether the geometry of the surface, for example the magnetopause, can be reconstructed using only line-of-sight observations from a single spacecraft. Under a broad range of conditions, the peak emission corresponds to the tangent to the boundary surface, such as the planetary surface or magnetopause, the so-called "limb brightening" phenomenon. Thus, line-of-sight observations frequently provide information concerning the tangent to the surfaces being observed. We present an algorithm to reconstruct the cross-section of the magnetopause using line-of-sight soft X-ray observations (and, in principle, ENA observations). The algorithm successfully reconstructs the cross section of the magnetopause in the orbit plane. The threedimensional magnetopause structure can be recovered from observations by a spacecraft whose orbit precesses around the magnetosphere.

The BATSRUS model was run at the Community Coordinate Modeling Center (CCMC). The results can be found through run Brian_Walsh_030413_1.

We examine the response of the thermosphere to the impact of solar wind dynamic pressure enhancements using observations and global magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) simulations by the OpenGGCM model. Combining neutral density observations from the Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites with simultaneous Poynting flux measurements from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F16, we find that thermospheric density as well as downward Poynting flux intensified shortly after a sudden enhancement of the solar wind dynamic pressure. The intensification manifested mostly on the dayside high-latitude region with peak intensity in the vicinity of the noon and prenoon cusp. OpenGGCM modeling results show that the ionospheric Joule heating increased abruptly in response to the sudden enhancement of the dynamic pressure in the same region as the observed Poynting flux and neutral density enhancements. The modeling results show that the enhanced Joule heating coincides, both in time and location, with the appearance of a pair of high-latitude localized field-aligned currents (FACs) in the cusp region. The FACs intensified and extended azimuthally. Coincidental with the solar wind dynamic pressure enhancement, the y component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) By became strongly positive and, in addition, had some large fluctuations. We explore the separate and combined effects of the dynamic pressure and IMF By perturbations, with specifically designed simulation experiments that isolate the effect of each solar wind parameter. We find that the dynamic pressure enhancement is the primary source for the Joule heating and neutral density enhancements, but the IMF By modulates the level of enhancement.

When, where, and which type of reconnection (antiparallel or component) happens on the dayside magnetopause are long-standing unsolved questions due to insufficient in situ observation of reconnection sites. Previous studies showed that the dispersed ion signatures observed in the magnetospheric cusps depend on the reconnection mechanism, suggesting that cusp ion signatures can be a good tool to investigate the locations and properties of dayside reconnection. We investigate this close relation between cusp signatures and magnetopause reconnection for four different interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) clock angles (CA) using the Open Global Geospace Circulation Model (OpenGGCM) and the Liouville Theorem Particle Tracer(LTPT). OpenGGCM produces dayside reconnection under the resistive MHD theory, and LTPT calculates cusp ion signatures caused by the simulated reconnection. Our model results show that for CA = 0∘, antiparallel reconnection at both the northern and southern lobes causes a reverse dispersion in which ion energies increase with increasing latitude. For CA = 60∘, unsteady antiparallel reconnection at both the northern and southern lobes causes double reverse dispersions. For CA = 120∘, component reconnection near the subsolar point produces a dispersionless signature in the low-latitude cusp, and antiparallel reconnection on the duskside northern magnetopause produces a normal dispersion in the high-latitude cusp in which ion energies decrease with increasing latitude. For CA = 180∘, antiparallel reconnection near the subsolar point causes a normal dispersion.

This study investigates how solar wind energy is deposited into the magnetosphere-ionosphere system during sudden enhancements of solar wind dynamic pressure (Psw), using the coupled Open Geospace General Circulation Model–Coupled Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (OpenGGCM-CTIM) 3-D global magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere model. We simulate three unique events of solar wind pressure enhancements that occurred during negative, near-zero, and positive interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bz. Then, we examine the behavior of the dayside and nightside reconnection rates and quantify their respective contributions to cross polar cap potential (CPCP), a proxy of ionospheric plasma convection strength. The modeled CPCP increases after a Psw enhancement in all three cases, which agrees well with observations from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft and predictions from the assimilative mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics technique. In the OpenGGCM-CTIM model, dayside reconnection increases within 9–13 min of the pressure impact, while nightside reconnection intensifies about 13–25 min after the pressure increase. As the strong Psw compresses the dayside magnetosheath and, subsequently, the magnetotail, their magnetic fields intensify and activate stronger antiparallel reconnection on the dayside magnetopause first and near the central plasma sheet second. For southward IMF, dayside reconnection contributes to the CPCP enhancement 2–4 times more than nightside reconnection. For northward IMF, the dayside contribution weakens, and nightside reconnection contributes more to the CPCP enhancement. We find that high-latitude magnetopause reconnection during northward IMF produces sunward ionospheric plasma convection, which decreases the typical dawn-to-dusk ionosphere electric field. This results in a weaker dayside reconnection contribution to the CPCP during northward IMF.