Hodographic approach for determining spacecraft trajectories through magnetic reconnection diffusion regions

Abstract

AbstractWe develop an algorithm that finds a trajectory through simulations of magnetic reconnection along which input Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft observations are matched. Using two‐dimensional particle‐in‐cell simulations of asymmetric reconnection, the method is applied to a magnetopause electron diffusion region (EDR) encountered by the MMS spacecraft to facilitate interpretation of the event based on fully kinetic models. The recently discovered crescent‐shaped electron velocity distributions measured by MMS in the EDR are consistent with simulation distributions at the corresponding time along the computed trajectory.