Figure 6.

(a) Example snapshot (simulation timeframe: t = 2,119.0 s) of the Vlasiator magnetopause. The “X” and “O” points are automatically identified by the algorithm. The color bar indicates the electric field along the X_GSM axis, E _x [mV/m]. (b) Magnetic islands categorized into four quadrants, Q1–4, based on their temporal change in enclosed magnetic flux, ∆ψ, and cross‐sectional area, ∆A. The linear fit from the orthogonal distance regression, shown as dashed black line, is y = 2.16 × −0.03. The color bars indicate the count of events per bin. (c) The change in the enclosed magnetic flux as a function of normalized reconnection rate, $ℛ=E_y^{x‐\mathit{\text{point}}}{\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{A}i}^{-1}{\mathrm{B}}^{-1}$. The linear fit from the orthogonal distance regression, shown as dashed black line, is y = 8.6 × −0.5. The red circles denote coalescing magnetic islands wherein two neighboring magnetic islands merge and create one larger island.