Matching experimental reconnection to multidimensional kinetic simulations

ORAL

Abstract



The normalized rate of reconnection is a measure of the upstream plasma inflow velocity compared to the local Alfven velocity. For large systems this rate is typically on the order of 0.1 but can become larger as system size decreases. Numerical and experimental results for Terrestrial Reconnection EXperiment (TREX) are applied in tandem to elucidate the qualities of reconnection in a low-density environment.  Prior TREX experimental results document how the rate of reconnection varies relative to the size of the system [1]. Here we present new simulation results demonstrating agreement with the experimental rate scaling.  Further new analyses exhibiting the matching between TREX simulations and the TREX experiment will also be shown.

[1] Olson et al., JPP (2021) 87, 3, 175870301.

*This work was supported by DOE funds DE-SC0019153, DE-SC0013032, DE-SC0018266, and DE-SC0010463, NASA fund 80NSSC18K1231, and by a fellowship from the Center for Space and Earth Science (CSES) at LANL.

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Presenters

  • Samuel Greess

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

Authors

  • Samuel Greess

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Jan Egedal

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Adam J Stanier

    • Los Alamos Natl Lab
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • William S Daughton

    • Los Alamos Natl Lab
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Joseph R Olson

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Ari Le

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos Natl Lab

  • Alexander Millet-Ayala

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Mike Clark

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • John P Wallace

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Douglass A Endrizzi

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Cary B Forest

    • University of Wisconsin - Madison