Hybrid-Vlasov simulation of soft X-ray emissions at the Earth's dayside magnetospheric boundaries

TL;DR

This study uses a hybrid-Vlasov simulation to model soft X-ray emissions at Earth's magnetospheric boundaries, revealing signatures of kinetic-scale processes like mirror-mode waves and flux transfer events that could be detected by upcoming space missions.

Contribution

First application of hybrid-Vlasov simulation to generate global soft X-ray images of Earth's dayside magnetosphere, capturing kinetic-scale features not modeled by previous MHD approaches.

Findings

Mirror-mode wave structures produce detectable X-ray signatures.

Flux transfer events contribute to transient X-ray features.

Simulations suggest potential for remote sensing of kinetic phenomena.

Abstract

Solar wind charge exchange produces emissions in the soft X-ray energy range which can enable the study of near-Earth space regions such as the magnetopause, the magnetosheath and the polar cusps by remote sensing techniques. The Solar wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) and Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) missions aim to obtain soft X-ray images of near-Earth space thanks to their Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) instruments. While earlier modeling works have already simulated soft X-ray images as might be obtained by SMILE SXI during its mission, the numerical models used so far are all based on the magnetohydrodynamics description of the space plasma. To investigate the possible signatures of ion-kinetic-scale processes in soft X-ray images, we use for the first time a global hybrid-Vlasov simulation of the geospace from the Vlasiator model. The simulation is driven by fast and tenuous solar wind conditions and purely southward interplanetary magnetic field. We first produce global X-ray images of the dayside near-Earth space by placing a virtual imaging satellite at two different locations, providing meridional and equatorial views. We then analyze regional features present in the images and show that they correspond to signatures in soft X-ray emissions of mirror-mode wave structures in the magnetosheath and flux transfer events (FTEs) at the magnetopause. Our results suggest that, although the time scales associated with the motion of those transient phenomena will likely be significantly smaller than the integration time of the SMILE and LEXI imagers, mirror-mode structures and FTEs can cumulatively produce detectable signatures in the soft X-ray images. [...]