Presentation #125.38 in the session General Topics: Solar — Poster Session.
The solar wind — magnetosphere coupling drives magnetospheric dynamic phenomena by enabling energy exchange between the magnetospheric and solar wind plasmas. We study this energy exchange by examining noon-midnight meridional plane runs of the global hybrid-Vlasov code Vlasiator with southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) driving. We compute the energy flux, which consists of the Poynting flux and hydrodynamic energy flux components, through the Earth’s magnetopause during flux transfer events (FTEs). The results demonstrate the spatio-temporal variations of the energy flux along the magnetopause during an FTE, associating the FTE leading (trailing) edge with an energy injection into (escape out from) the magnetosphere on the dayside. Furthermore, FTEs travelling along the magnetopause transport energy to the nightside magnetosphere. We identify the tail lobes as a primary entry region for solar wind energy into the magnetosphere, consistent with results from global magnetohydrodynamic simulations and observations.