The effect of magnetopause motion on fast mode resonance

Abstract

The Earth's magnetosphere supports several types of ultralow frequency (ULF) waves. These include fast mode resonance (FMR): cavity modes, waveguide modes, and tunneling modes/virtual resonance. The magnetopause, often treated as the outer boundary for cavity/waveguide modes in the dayside magnetosphere, is not stationary. A rapidly changing outer boundary condition—e.g., due to rapid magnetopause motion—is not favorable for FMR generation and may explain the sparseness of FMR observations in the outer magnetosphere. We examine how magnetopause motion affects the dayside magnetosphere's ability to sustain FMR with idealized Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) simulations using the BATS‐R‐US global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code coupled with the Ridley Ionosphere Model (RIM). We present observations of FMR in BATS‐R‐US, reproducing results from other global MHD codes. We further show that FMR is present for a wide range of solar wind conditions, even during periods with large and rapid magnetopause displacements. We compare our simulation results to FMR observations in the dayside magnetosphere, finding that FMR occurrence does not depend on solar wind dynamic pressure, which can be used as a proxy for dynamic pressure fluctuations and magnetopause perturbations. Our results demonstrate that other explanations besides a nonstationary magnetopause—such as the inability to detect FMR in the presence of other ULF wave modes with large amplitudes—are required to explain the rarity of FMR observations in the outer magnetosphere. Key Points Typical magnetopause motion does not affect fast mode resonance occurrence Magnetopause motion cannot explain why FMR is rarely observed Selection criteria and non‐FMR wave activity affect FMR occurrence rate