Title : Magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause
Abstract : Magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause, the edge of Earth’s magnetosphere on the side closer to the sun, it is crucial for understanding how the magnetosphere reacts to input from interplanetary space. This process is a crucial part of space weather. Many fundamental issues about dayside reconnection remain unsolved — quantitatively and even qualitatively — due to a number of complications. The reconnection process at the dayside is usually asymmetric, often has flow shear due to the solar wind, and three-dimensional effects can play a role. This talk will summarize recent theoretical, numerical, and observational work on these topics, including the local efficiency and properties of reconnection at the dayside, asymmetric reconnection with a flow shear, and the tailward motion of open flux tubes (flux transfer events). Theoretical predictions are compared to two-dimensional local numerical simulations and three-dimensional global magnetosphe! ric magnetohydrodynamic simulations. For each study, applications and differences with previous knowledge will be discussed.