Interactions between solar wind ions and neutral hydrogen atoms in Earth's exosphere can lead to the emission of soft X-rays. Upcoming missions such as SMILE and LEXI aim to use soft X-ray imaging to study the global structure of the magnetosphere. Although the magnetosheath and dayside magnetopause can often be driven by kinetic physics, it has typically been omitted from fluid simulations used to predict X-ray emissions. We study the possible results of soft X-ray imaging using hybrid simulations under quasi-radial interplanetary magnetic fields, where ion-ion instabilities drive ultra-low frequency foreshock waves, leading to turbulence in the magnetosheath, affecting the dynamics of the cusp and magnetopause. We simulate soft X-ray emission to determine what may be seen by missions such as LEXI, and evaluate the possibility of identifying kinetic structures. While kinetic structures are visible in high-cadence imaging, current instruments may not have the time resolution to discern kinetic signals.
The May 2024 Storm: dayside magnetopause and cusps in simulated soft X-Rays
University of Maryland, College Park(马里兰大学帕克分校);NASA Goddard Space Flight Center(美国宇航局戈达德太空飞行中心);Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University(约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室);Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley(加州大学伯克利分校空间科学实验室);Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center(洛克希德·马丁先进技术中心)
Global three-dimensional simulation of Earth's dayside reconnection using a two-way coupled magnetohydrodynamics with embedded particle-in-cell model: initial results
Compression and Reconnection Investigations of the MagnetoPause (CRIMP): A Mission Concept to Uncover the Impact of Mesoscale Reconnection and Plasma Outflow Processes at the Dayside Magnetopause
Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire(新罕布什尔大学空间科学中心);University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign(伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校);Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian(哈佛与史密森尼天体物理中心);Massachusetts Institute of Technology(麻省理工学院);Dartmouth College(达特茅斯学院);NASA Goddard Space Flight Center(美国宇航局戈达德太空飞行中心);Georgia State University(佐治亚州立大学);The Catholic University of America(美利坚天主教大学);Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica(巴西航空技术研究所);The Aerospace Corporation(航空航天公司);Arizona State University(亚利桑那州立大学);Remcom Inc.(Remcom公司);NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology(美国宇航局喷气推进实验室,加州理工学院);Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley(加州大学伯克利分校空间科学实验室);University of California, Los Angeles(加州大学洛杉矶分校);Southwest Research Institute(西南研究院)