The Structure of the Cusp Diamagnetic Cavity and Test Particle Energization in the GAMERA Global MHD Simulation

Abstract

A diamagnetic cavity (DMC) can form in the Earth's high latitude magnetosphere as long as large-scale reconnection is occurring at the magnetopause such that the reconnection process forms a kink in the field resulting in a magnetic bottle geometry. When the reconnection occurs in the vicinity of the northern or southern cusp, the resulting cavities are commonly referred to as cusp DMCs (

Ion precipitation in the cusp for northward IMF and its relationship with magnetosheath flow

“…This range of θ is well within the range of − 30° to 30°. On the other hand, it should be noted that in a more recent MHD simulation (Burkholder et al 2021), the plasma density at the magnetosheath-lobe interface (upper left panel of their Fig. 5) does not necessarily tend to decrease downstream.…”

Statistical Study of the Energetic Electron Microinjections at the High‐Latitude Magnetosphere

“…The DMCs, formed both at the northern and southern hemisphere by the magnetic reconnection, can locally energize the particles if particles can remain trapped sufficiently long and their drift paths coincide with the reconnection “quasi‐potential” (Nykyri et al., 2012). The cavities also provide the temperature anisotropy (Burkholder et al., 2021b; Nykyri et al., 2012) that is responsible for the development of drift mirror instability, which could be the mechanism for the ULF waves. These accelerated particles may leak out from the cavities or be captured and transported by the drift mirror waves or KH waves to their observation site.…”

Seven Sisters—Pathfinder Mission to Protect Humanity from Space Weather

“…KHI has been observed at CME boundaries [5,13] and in ambient SW [6] and can play role in plasma transport [15] and heating [10,11,14] in the SW and SW structures. Like in Earth's magnetopause we expect that at CIRs (see Figure 1) KHI can also enhance reconnection rate [8,9] which may lead to formation of large diamagnetic cavities [17] where suprathermal energization [16,3] of particles is possible. Motivated by these recent findings and need to better understand the radial development of SW structures (e.g., the longitudinal structure and evolution of CMEs), we propose a first of its kind Pathfinder mission, consisting of 7 spacecraft (Seven Sisters) first flying as 7 spacecraft, tetrahedron constellation at two-scales along Venus-Sun Lagrange 1 point (L1), and at later mission phase, at the Venus-Sun Lagrange points (2 at L1, L4, and L5, and 1 at L3) to enable study of the azimuthal and longitudinal variation of the CMEs, SIRs, HCS, FTs, properties of large-scale (λ > 40 Mm to 2 Gm) MHD waves and particle transport and acceleration.…”

“…Mission Team: PI: Katariina Nykyri [1] ; Mission Engineering and Orbital Mechanics: Jeff Parker [2] , Lauren De Moudt [2] , and Mitchell Rosen [2] ; Preliminary Orbital Analysis: Roberto Cuellar Rangel [1] and Mark Herring [1] ; Instrument analysis for magnetometer: Roy Torbert [3] and Matthew Argall [3] ; Instrument analysis for thermal plasma: Robert Ebert [8] ; Instrument analysis for suprathermal plasma: Keiichi Ogasawara [8] ; Core Science Team Members: Katariina Nykyri [1] , Joe Borovsky [4] , Jef Broll [5] , Jim Burch [8] , Brandon Burkholder [6,7] , Robert Ebert [8] , Michael Hesse [9] , Therese Jorgensen Moretto [9] , Xuanye Ma [1] , Keiichi Ogasawara [8] , Merav Opher [10] , Christopher Russell [11] , David Sibeck [6] , Roy Torbert [3] / Matthew Argall [3] , Rick Wilder [12] , and Simon Wing [13] ; Institution: 1. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University 2.…”