A multi-fluid model of the magnetopause

Observation of the solar wind - magnetosphere boundary provides a unique opportunity to investigate the physics underlying the interaction between two collisionless magnetized plasmas with different temperature, density and magnetic field topology. Their mixing across the interface as well as the boundary dynamics are affected by the development of fluid (and kinetic) instabilities driven by large scale inhomogeneities in particle and electromagnetic fields. Building up a realistic initial equilibrium state of the magnetopause according to observations is still a challenge nowadays. In this paper we address the modeling of the particles and electromagnetic fields configuration across the Earth’s magnetopause by means of a three-fluid analytic model. The model relies on one hot and one cold ion population and on a neutralizing electron population. The goal is to build up an analytic model able to reproduce as closely as possible the observations. Some parameters of the model are set by using a fit procedure aiming at minimizing their difference with respect to experimental data provided by the Magnetospheric MultiScale mission. All the other profiles, concerning the electron pressure and the relative densities of the cold and hot ion populations, are calculated in order to satisfy the fluid equilibrium equations. Finally, by means of a new tri-fluid code, we have checked the stability of the large-scale equilibrium model for a given experimental case and given the proof that the system is unstable to reconnection. This model could be of interest for the interpretation of satellite results and for the study of the dynamics at the boundary between the magnetosphere and the solar wind