July 28, 2017, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

July 28, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Enhanced Electron Heating and Mixing in 3D Kinetic Simulations for MMS Magnetopause Crossings

Ari Le (LANL)

We present 3D kinetic simulations of asymmetric reconnection with plasma parameters matching MMS magetopause diffusion region crossings. The simulation are performed with the code VPIC on LANL's Trinity machine, which enabled relatively high grid resolution and numerical particle numbers to resolve the electron diffusion region dynamics. The simulations not only reproduce the reported crescent distributions but also appear to account for new features observed by MMS in other diffusion region events. Compared to 2D simulations with the same plasma parameters, drift turbulence in the 3D simulations substantially enhances the mixing and parallel heating of electrons on the magnetosphere side and modifies the reconnection rate inferred from a recently introduced electron mixing diagnostic.