A Study of Magnetic Reconnection on the Terrestrial Magnetosphere by Flux Transfer Events observed by the THEMIS mission

• Grant number: 08/10791-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2009
• End date: February 29, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geophysics
• Principal Investigator: Walter Demetrio Gonzalez Alarcon
• Grantee: Aline de Lucas
• Host Institution: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brasil). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The interplanetary medium is permeated by different magnetic field topologies that govern and influence the plasma particles flow in this environment. Magnetic reconnection process is considered as an important process for momentum and energy transfer from one medium to another. Recent observations from satellites in the solar wind have provided the study of flux transfer events in the interplanetary medium. This represents the existence of a new laboratory where reconnection can be investigated by "in situ" measurements.The aim of the present work is to study flux transfer events in the solar wind and in the magnetosphere where reconnection occurs. For that purpose we will make use of data from Helios and ACE missions in the solar wind; Cluster and THEMIS, in the magnetosphere. Minimum variance analysis and the deHoffmann-Teller frame transformation will be applied to determine the frame of reference where the electric field vanishes in the plasma. After the deHoffmann-Teller frame determination, the axial magnetic field maps along the spacecraft trajectory, that measures the considered data, are obtained by the Grad-Shafranov reconstruction technique. Finally, the determination of the interplanetary structures involved in the flux transfer events will be possible to be done through the analysis of the axial magnetic field maps.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DE LUCAS, A.; DAL LAGO, A.; SCHWENN, R.; CLUA DE GONZALEZ, A. L.. Multi-spacecraft observed magnetic clouds as seen by Helios mission. JOURNAL OF ATMOSPHERIC AND SOLAR-TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS, v. 73, n. 11-12, p. 11-pg., 2011-07-01. (08/10791-7)

DE LUCAS, A.; DAL LAGO, A.; SCHWENN, R.; CLUA DE GONZALEZ, A. L.. Multi-spacecraft observed magnetic clouds as seen by Helios mission. JOURNAL OF ATMOSPHERIC AND SOLAR-TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS, v. 73, n. 11-12, SI, p. 1361-1371, JUL 2011. (08/10791-7)