Abstract
We study the problem of onset of reconnection and the corresponding nonlinear evolution of reconnection in the near‐Earth plasma sheet, where the influence of the Earth's dipole field is essential. This is done by the help of two‐dimensional resistive MHD simulations. The simulations start from a two‐dimensional equilibrium model for the near‐Earth plasma sheet, including the Earth's dipole field explicitly. The stability properties of this start configuration differ significantly from the stability of two‐dimensional tail equilibria, including both plasma sheet and lobe. This allows us to study onset and evolution of resistive modes that are linearly stable but non‐linearly unstable. We find qualitatively significant differences, as compared with simulations of tail configurations. For instance, we find sunward flow both tailward and earthward of the reconnection X line. The corresponding reconnection rates come out to be about an order of magnitude lower compared with reconnection as a result of a large‐scale tearing mode in tail configurations. We show that the reconnection rates can be significantly increased by suitable modifications of the start configuration.
Published Version
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