Behavior of fast earthward flow near the braking region: Hall MHD simulation

¹ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of South China - Hengyang 421001, China
² Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University - Hangzhou, 310027, China
³ School of Electrical Engineering, University of South China - Hengyang 421001, China

^(a) zwma@zju.edu.cn

Received: 29 July 2016
Accepted: 8 November 2016

Abstract

Behavior of the fast earthward flow near the braking region in the magnetotail during a substorm is investigated using the Hall MHD simulation. The results indicate that the high-speed earthward plasma flow is associated with fast reconnection in the middle tail. The fast flow is mainly confined in the range . In the region of , due to intermittent magnetic reconnection, the earthward flow exhibits a fluctuating property, i.e., the flow is localized in space and is bursty in time. The pile-up of the magnetic flux and plasma in the near-Earth region leads to formation of the fast-flow braking region or dipolarization front. After colliding into the fast-flow braking region, a part of the Earth flow bounces back, and leads to an intermittent tailward flow in the near-Earth magnetotail.