Magnetotail Reconnection Onset and Dipolarization Fronts II
Scientific Workshop
Dates: September 17-21, 2018
Location: JHU/APL, Laurel, MD
Organizers: M. Sitnov and V. G. Merkin
Overview
This is an informal workshop to be held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) during September 17-21, 2018. It will be similar in format to the first MRODF meeting held at the JHU/APL in 2015. The idea is to bring together a few dozen of experts most interested and involved in the topic. No registration fee. The total duration planned is <5 days.
Tentative topics and science questions:
What new have we learned in the physics of reconnection onset?
Are dipolarization fronts only pertinent to the magnetotail?
What new did we learn from MMS regarding the EDR and collisionless reconnection?
How can the tail current sheet be thinned down to electron scales?
Why may the EDR be quiet?
How universal are regions of the tailward Bz field gradient?
What are the relative roles of magnetic flux accumulation and plasma anisotropy in the onset mechanism?
What are the stability properties of tailward Bz gradients?
What are the effects of background plasma?
What are the roles of MHD, Hall-MHD and fully kinetic effects?
What are roles of 3-D effects? How do ballooning/interchange and flapping instabilities compete with the ion tearing instability and its MHD analog?
What is the role of collisions?
Electron-only reconnection?
What are the details and mechanisms of the plasma heating in fronts?
What is (if any) the mechanism of magnetic topology change in the wake of dipolarization fronts?
What is the relationship of DFs seen in kinetic, regional MHD and global MHD simulations?
What is the relationship of DFs to unsteady Petschek reconnection?
What are the mechanisms of the entropy reduction in fronts?
What is the relation between the SCW and DFs? Is the SCW just a big DF or an accumulation of many DFs?
What are the kinetic analogs of the fluid dissipation measure, Joule heating rate?
What are the relative roles of fronts and EDR in plasma heating and particle energization?
What is the physical meaning of negative Joule heating in MMS observations and PIC simulations?
How are dipolarizations modified by the energy-dependent drifts in the near-earth region?
How are ring current injections related to dipolarization fronts?
How does ring current buildup depend on magnetotail reconnection farther in the tail?
How much do mesoscale dipolarizations and injections contribute to ring current build up?
How can one describe dipolarizations in the transition region between MHD-dominated external magnetosphere and the inner magnetosphere dominated by slow motions and energy-dependent drifts?
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