A split separator line merging model of the dayside magnetopause

A new magnetic field configuration in the magnetopause of an open magnetosphere is constructed by superposing a uniform field and the idealized Chapman‐Ferraro field. A straightforward interpretation of the results synthesizes previously unrelated models and observations: antiparallel and subsolar merging, uniform‐field‐plus‐dipole models, merging by the tearing mode instability, the magnetic curl configuration in laboratory terella experiments, flux transfer events, and accelerated boundary layer flows.