Structure of the dayside reconnection layer in resistive MHD and hybrid models

Numerical simulations were performed to investigate the structure of the reconnection layer at the dayside magnetopause. Two typical cases are examined in detail; both are asymmetric in magnetic field and plasma density. In case 1, the guide fields in the magnetosheath and in the magnetosphere are set at zero and thus the tangential magnetic fields on the two sides of the initial current sheet are exactly antiparallel. In case 2, the angle between the tangential magnetic fields on the two sides of the initial current sheet is 145 deg. The results obtained from a resistive MHD model and from a hybrid model are found to be different. In the MHD simulation of case 1, a 2-4 intermediate shock is found to bound the reconnection layer on the magnetosheath side, while an Alfven wave pulse bounds the reconnection layer on the magnetospheric side. In case 2, it is found that a time-dependent intermediate shock (TDIS) bounds the reconnection layer on the magnetosheath side, with a slow expansion wave propagating behind. With the MHD simulations, in the general case in which the tangential magnetic fields on the two sides of the initial current sheet are not exactly antiparallel, a rotational discontinuity across which the tangential magnetic field rotates, a large angle is found to bound the reconnection layer on the magnetosheath side.