Physics
Scientific paper
May 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agusmsm43c..03s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #SM43C-03
Physics
2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 2744 Magnetotail, 2760 Plasma Convection (2463)
Scientific paper
Plasma bubbles, that is, underpopulated flux tubes, which may move toward the Earth much faster than the rest of the tail plasmas because of buoyancy effect [Pontius and Wolf, 1990] are believed to resolve the convection crisis problem and explain fast transfer of magnetic flux and plasma in the tail in the form of bursty bulk flows. However, the formation and properties of plasma bubbles remain insufficiently understood, and in particular, the kinetic description of these phenomena is completely missing. Keys to the solution of these problems have recently been found in the theory of forced magnetic reconnection and kinetic models of embedded and bifurcated thin current sheets. The theory of forced magnetic reconnection combined with the stability analysis of the tail plasmas provides a model of the bubble origin as a result of the formation of a small plasmoid on the closed field lines in the magnetotail and its quick tailward retreat. It is shown that the flux tube that contained a plasmoid becomes a plasma bubble, with the plasmoid being replaced by a thin current sheet embedded within the original thicker sheet. Along the Sun-Earth direction this embedded current sheet is additionally sandwiched between two bifurcated current sheets. Such sandwiched combinations of thin current sheets have been discovered in Cluster observations of fast earthward flows [Nakamura et al., 2002]. The new bubble formation theory can be combined with the new kinetic models of embedded and bifurcated current sheets [Sitnov et al., 2003]. The resulting 2D kinetic theory of plasma bubbles is described and further compared with Geotail and Cluster observations.
Divin A. V.
Guzdar Parvez N.
Sitnov Mikhail I.
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