Reconstructing Magnetotail Reconnection Events Using Data Mining is Feasible and Repeatable

Abstract Recently, Stephens et al. (2023), https://doi.org/10.1029/2022ja031066 utilized a data mining (DM) algorithm, applied to 26 years of magnetospheric magnetometer observations coupled with a flexible formulation of the magnetospheric magnetic field, to reconstruct the global configuration of the magnetotail when the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission observed tail reconnection in situ. Of the 26 DM‐reconstructed MMS reconnection events, 16 had a isocontour within Earth radii of the observed reconnection location. Another eight had a minimum region, identified using nT isocontours, within . This consistency suggests that the structure of tail reconnection is correlated with the substorm/storm state of the magnetosphere, as reflected by geomagnetic indices and solar wind conditions. We verify these results using new validation methods and by comparing in‐sample (including event data) to out‐of‐sample (excluding event data) reconstructions. We first benchmark the architecture of the reconstructed magnetic field using 100 randomly generated magnetic fields containing tail X‐ and O‐lines, res