Observations of the Sudden Compression of the Earth's Magnetotail by the Passage of Interplanetary Shocks: Comparison with Equilibrium Theory

Details Observations of the Sudden Compression of the Earth's Magnetotail by the Passage of Interplanetary Shocks: Comparison with Equilibrium Theory Observations of the Sudden Compression of the Earth's Magnetotail by the Passage of Interplanetary Shocks: Comparison with Equilibrium Theory

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsh21b..08t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SH21B-08

Physics

2139 Interplanetary Shocks, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

In the ISEE-3/ISEE-2 data set, four instances have been found in which an interplanetary shock passes the magnetosphere while ISEE-2 is in the magnetotail plasma sheet. Each time, an increase of the plasma density and plasma temperature is seen during the shock passage, along with a plasma flow toward the center of the magnetotail. A few minutes after the shock passes, a strong earthward flow of plasma commences in the magnetotail. This earthward flow lasts for about 6-7 minutes. The magnetosphere, which was in MHD equilibrium with the solar wind before the shock, is suddenly put out of dynamical equilibrium by the increased pressure behind the shock; for a plasma-sheet adiabatic index that is less than 2, Birn and Schindler [J. Geophys. Res., 88, 6969, 1983] have predicted that this global magnetotail flow should be directed earthward as the magnetotail seeks its new equilibrium. These four ISEE-3/ISEE-2 interplanetary shock intervals are very useful for magnetospheric physics because (a) the adiabatic index of the magnetospheric plasma can be measured by ISEE-2 during the shock compression of the magnetosphere and (b) the spatial structure of turbulence in the magnetotail can be viewed as the global earthward flows sweep the plasma and magnetic fields past the ISEE-2 satellite.

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