Sadie Robertson

Magnetopause reconnection drives magnetospheric dynamics, transferring energy from the solar wind into the Earth’s magnetosphere. During this process, we commonly observe helical magnetic field structures know as flux ropes. These structures are thought to play a role in the energy transfer processes taking place and in transporting magnetic flux from the magnetopause into the magnetotail. Previous studies have statistically investigated the properties of flux ropes observed on the magnetopause using various spacecraft, recently highlighting the importance of interactions between flux ropes. Here, we use Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission data to specifically investigate potentially recently-formed flux ropes observed near electron diffusion region (EDR) encounters. We characterise the properties of these ‘young’ flux ropes, including their size, core field strength, flux content and topology, as well as investigating if the properties of the EDR relate to the flux rope observations. We focus on what these properties can tell us about the formation mechanisms of the flux ropes and any flux rope interactions which may have taken place. We compare our observations to other studies to determine if such flux ropes have unique properties, forming a distinct category of flux ropes, or follow previously reported trends.