Magnetopause reconnection and energy conversion as influenced by the dipole tilt and the IMF Bx

Abstract

We study the effect of Earth's dipole tilt angle and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bx and By components on the location of reconnection and the energy conversion at the magnetopause. We simulate southward IMF satisfying both inward- and outward-type Parker spiral conditions during three different dipole tilt angles using a global magnetohydrodynamic model GUMICS-4. We find that positive (negative) Bx contributes to the magnetopause reconnection line location by moving northward (southward) and positive (negative) dipole tilt angle by moving it southward (northward). The tilt shifts the dayside load region toward the winter hemisphere and the summer cusp toward the equatorial plane. Magnetic flux hence piles effectively in the summer hemisphere leading to increased magnetopause currents that enhance the Poynting flux through the magnetopause. We find that the intensity of the energy conversion in the generators is strongly affected by the dipole tilt angle, whereas intensity in the load region is mainly affected by IMF Bx. ©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.