Three dimensional configuration of earthward fast plasma flow in the near-Earth plasma sheet

Abstract

Abstract The earthward short-term (1-min. order) fast flow event (Flow Burst) and the long-term (10-min. order) fast flow event (Bursty Bulk Flow) observed in the near-Earth plasma sheet are examined using three dimensional MHD simulations on the basis of spontaneous fast reconnection model. It is well known that these fast flow events are closely related to the magnetic substorms. On the other hand, it is considered that these fast flow events are caused by the magnetic reconnection in the near-Earth magnetotail. The time profiles of plasma quantities in these events observed by in-situ satellites are quite different in each event. Above Flow Burst and Bursty Bulk Flow events are often examined separately due to the large difference in time scale. In this paper, these differences are interpreted by the three-dimensional position of satellite relative to the X-line and the reconnection jet channel, and the simulation results are directly compared with the results of in-situ satellite observations using the virtual satellites located in simulation domain.