Ion distribution functions in magnetotail reconnection: global hybrid-Vlasov simulation results

Runov, Andrei; Grandin, Maxime; Palmroth, Minna; Battarbee, Markus; Ganse, Urs; Hietala, Heli; Hoilijoki, Sanni; Kilpua, Emilia; Pfau-Kempf, Yann; Toledo-Redondo, Sergio; Turc, Lucile; Turner, Drew

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-599-2021

Articles | Volume 39, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-599-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-599-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 39, issue 4

Regular paper

|

02 Jul 2021

Regular paper |

| 02 Jul 2021

Ion distribution functions in magnetotail reconnection: global hybrid-Vlasov simulation results

Andrei Runov, Maxime Grandin, Minna Palmroth, Markus Battarbee, Urs Ganse, Heli Hietala, Sanni Hoilijoki, Emilia Kilpua, Yann Pfau-Kempf, Sergio Toledo-Redondo, Lucile Turc, and Drew Turner

Data sets

Vlasiator M. Palmroth http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/vlasiator/

Vlasiator: hybrid-Vlasov simulation code Palmroth, M. and the Vlasiator team https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3640593

VLSV: file format and tools A. Sandroos https://github.com/fmihpc/vlsv/

Model code and software

Analysator: python analysis toolkit Battarbee, M. and the Vlasiator team https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4462515

Short summary

In collisionless systems like space plasma, particle velocity distributions contain fingerprints of ongoing physical processes. However, it is challenging to decode this information from observations. We used hybrid-Vlasov simulations to obtain ion velocity distribution functions at different locations and at different stages of the Earth's magnetosphere dynamics. The obtained distributions provide valuable examples that may be directly compared with observations by satellites in space.