Mode Conversion and Anomalous Transport in Kelvin-Helmholtz Vortices and Kinetic Alfvén Waves at the Earth’s Magnetopause

Chaston, C. C.; Wilber, M.; Mozer, F. S.; Fujimoto, M.; Goldstein, M. L.; Acuña, M. H.; Rème, H.; Fazakerley, A. N.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.99.175004

Cited by 92 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Another factor facilitating the KHI development may be high O + levels in the magnetospheric density associated with enhanced ion outflow, plasmaspheric plumes, and/or substorm activity. As indicated in Figure 2g, AE peaked at the time of the event, which lowers the KHI threshold [Bouhram et al, 2005].…”

Section: Kh Waves Under Southward Imf Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…[30] The observed irregularities and inconsistent variations in the scale sizes (durations of the structure traverse by C1) and fluctuation levels of the KHW appear relatively more noticeable than those reported for northward IMF KHW events Kivelson and Chen, 1995;Fairfield et al, 2000;Hasegawa et al, 2004;Bouhram et al, 2005]. We continue this discussion using information on phase coherence of the time series magnetic field data for the northward/southward IMF KHW events (4).…”

Section: Kh Waves Under Southward Imf Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…[4] More recently, focus has shifted to a nonlinear stage of the KHI, i.e., large-scale, rolled-up KH vortices (KHVs) that facilitate SW entry into Earth's magnetosphere via 1) diffusive transport through the turbulent decay of KHVs whose onset has been attributed to a secondary KHI or RayleighTaylor instability [Nakamura et al, 2004;Hoshino, 2004, 2006], 2) reconnection between stretched field lines due to the vortex motion Nykyri and Otto, 2001;Nakamura et al, 2006Nakamura et al, , 2008, or 3) kinetic Alfvén waves (KAW) through a mode conversion from KH surface waves [Chaston et al, 2007]. These three processes can trigger plasma transport and mixing within or at the edge of rolled-up KHVs and are believed to play a crucial role in the evolution of the KHV structure, ultimately forming a broad mixing layer at Earth's dawn/ dusk flanks [Mitchell et al, 1987;Nakamura et al, 2006;Hasegawa et al, 2009].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kelvin-Helmholtz waves under southward interplanetary magnetic field

et al. 2011

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[1] The Kelvin-Helmholtz waves have been observed along the Earth's low-latitude magnetopause and have been suggested to play a certain role in the entry of solar wind plasma into Earth's magnetosphere. In situ observations of the KH waves (KHW) and, in particular, a nonlinear stage of the KH instability, i.e., rolled-up KH vortices (KHVs), have been reported to occur preferentially for northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Using Cluster data, we present the first in situ observation of nonlinearly developed KHW during southward IMF. The analysis reveals that there is a mixture of less-developed and more-developed KHW that shows inconsistent variations in scale size and the magnetic perturbations in the context of the expected evolution of KH structures. A coherence analysis implies that the observed KHW under southward IMF appear to be irregular and intermittent. These irregular and turbulent characteristics are more noticeable than previously reported KHW events that have been detected preferentially during northward IMF. This suggests that under southward IMF KHVs become easily irregular and temporally intermittent, which might explain the preferential in situ detection of KHVs when the IMF is northward. MHD simulation of the present event shows that during southward IMF dynamically active subsolar environments can cause KHV that evolve with considerable intermittency. The MHD simulations appear to reproduce well the qualitative features of the Cluster observations.

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Section: Kh Waves Under Southward Imf Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Kh Waves Under Southward Imf Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kelvin-Helmholtz waves under southward interplanetary magnetic field

et al. 2011

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“…Multi-point measurements have verified that the dispersion of the broadband waves is consistent with the kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs) [35,36]. Such mode conversion may lead to effective heating and transport of plasma at the magnetopause [30,32,33,37].…”

mentioning

confidence: 73%

Simulation of mode conversion at the magnetopause

Lin

Wang

2012

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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Two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) hybrid simulations are carried out for mode conversion from fast mode compressional wave to kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs) at the inhomogeneous magnetopause boundary. For cases in which the incident fast wave propagates in the xz plane, with the magnetopause normal along x and the background magnetic field pointing along z, the 2-D (xz) simulation shows that KAWs with large wave number k x ρ i ∼ 1 are generated near the Alfvén resonance surface, where ρ i is the ion Larmor radius. Several nonlinear wave properties are manifest in the mode conversion process. Harmonics of the driver frequency are generated. As a result of nonlinear wave interaction, the mode conversion region and its spectral width are broadened. In the 3-D simulation, after this first stage of the mode conversion to KAWs with large k x , a subsequent generation of KAW modes of finite k y is observed in the later stage, through a nonlinear parametric decay process. Since the nonlinear cascade to k y can lead to massive transport at the magnetopause, the simulation results provide an effective transport mechanism at the plasma boundaries in space as well as laboratory plasmas.

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“…The same two point observations will be examined for evidence of KH-generated reconnection, diffusion, turbulence, shocklets, and dawn/dusk asymmetries (e.g. Chaston et al 2007).…”

Section: Boundary Waves Flux Transfer Events and Turbulence In The mentioning

confidence: 99%

ARTEMIS Science Objectives

Sibeck¹,

Angelopoulos²,

Brain³

et al. 2011

The ARTEMIS Mission

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NASA's two spacecraft ARTEMIS mission will address both heliospheric and planetary research questions, first while in orbit about the Earth with the Moon and subsequently while in orbit about the Moon. Heliospheric topics include the structure of the Earth's magnetotail; reconnection, particle acceleration, and turbulence in the Earth's magnetosphere, at the bow shock, and in the solar wind; and the formation and structure of the D.G. Sibeck ( ) Code 674, GSFC/NASA,

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Mode Conversion and Anomalous Transport in Kelvin-Helmholtz Vortices and Kinetic Alfvén Waves at the Earth’s Magnetopause

Cited by 92 publications

References 23 publications

Kelvin-Helmholtz waves under southward interplanetary magnetic field

Kelvin-Helmholtz waves under southward interplanetary magnetic field

Simulation of mode conversion at the magnetopause

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