Physics
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sm42d11s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SM42D-11
Physics
2134 Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, 2154 Planetary Bow Shocks, 2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, 2728 Magnetosheath
Scientific paper
This work, based loosely on the draping of magnetic field lines around a conducting sphere or cylinder, provides an analytical construction of the magnetosheath's B field for arbitrary IMF direction. The basic procedure is to create a generic expression for the equation of a field line when the IMF is either parallel or perpendicular to the solar-wind velocity. This procedure is easily visualized for the case of a hemispherically capped cylindrical magnetopause, from which the resulting expressions can be "stretched" to fill the region outside the (possibly more realistic) magnetopause adopted for the particular application of interest. The resulting equation of a field line is replaced upstream from the bow shock by the equation of a straight line uniformly distant from the IMF line that seems to radiate from (or toward) the neutral point on the hemispheric cap. The IMF is regarded as locally uniform until it reaches the bow shock. Since the (easily constructed) Euler potentials (essentially a flux variable α and an azimuth β ) that label IMF lines must be continuous across the bow shock, they serve also to label field lines in the magnetosheath, whereupon the magnetosheath's B field is likewise given by grad α x grad β . This is for IMF either parallel or perpendicular to the solar-wind velocity. Results for B with arbitrary IMF direction are obtained by weighted superposition of results for B in the two limiting cases. This model for B is not current-free, but neither is the real magnetosheath. This model for B is also not unique, being dependent on a physics-based but ultimately "created" expression for the equation of a generic field line. However, the model seems flexible enough to provide a realistic representation of the magnetosheath's B field upon suitable adjustment of the model's parameters.
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