Magnetic flux ropes exist widely in solar and space plasmas. In the terrestrial magnetosphere,
they are generated during magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause (causing flux transfer
events (FTEs)) and in the magnetotail, and are believed to play essential roles in transport of
plasma and electromagnetic energy between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. In the solar
atmosphere, twisted flux ropes are a fundamental structure in pre-eruption magnetic field and the
eruptions.
In this talk, I will discuss the physics of flux ropes at the magnetopause based on three-
dimensional global hybrid (fully kinetic ions + electron fluid) simulations of the magnetosphere,
in a dynamic interaction with the solar wind. Specifically, I will discuss the formation of flux
ropes by time-dependent reconnection, as well as their global configuration and dynamic
interaction. The simulation results will be compared with in-situ observations from NASA’s
Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. In addition, reconnection leads to the direct entry of
charged particles from the solar wind into the cusp magnetosphere and ionosphere. A dispersive
signature of low energy cutoff is found in the energy spectrum of the cusp precipitating particles
by space observations. Such signature is believed to be a fingerprint of the magnetopause
reconnection. I will discuss how our global simulations will provide a theoretical support to the
Tandem Reconnection And Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS)
mission, in which two spacecraft will fly through the cusp to determine the spatial and temporal
variations of reconnection at the magnetopause and how they drive cusp dynamics.

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