Influence of IMF Rotation on the Magnetic Field Depression in the Magnetosheath: A Kinetic View

Physics

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2109 Discontinuities, 2154 Planetary Bow Shocks, 2728 Magnetosheath, 7843 Numerical Simulation Studies

Scientific paper

Numerical simulations using a one-dimensional hybrid code are performed to investigate how the particle kinetic process determines the magnetosheath structure when the upstream solar wind carries the IMF rotation. It is known from the conventional MHD theory that the interaction of such an IMF disturbance with the bow shock leads to the formation of the diamagnetic structure (density enhancement and magnetic field depression) in the downstream, the edges of which correspond to the excited slow, or intermediate, shock waves. However, the downstream plasma has strong anisotropy (energy imbalance between the component parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field) in the quasi-perpendicular shock regime; which enables the mirror instability to grow, for instance. Thus the present kinetic approach is essential for the precise understanding of the resultant magnetosheath structure. The most significant result (different from MHD view) is that the rotating magnetic field which passes through the shock rapidly modifies the directional energy distribution of ions in the downstream. Stronger energy of the perpendicular component turns to contribute to the substantial parallel heating in the field rotation. Such ion isotropization shows the net increase of the total thermal pressure which makes the reduction of the magnetic field to maintain the pressure balance. Inside this field rotation region, a large amount of particles with v∥ ~ 0 are accumulated. This process can be considered as an analogy of the physics in the mirror instability. However, the condition for the instability is immediately suppressed when particles experience the field rotation, so that the resultant structure is stably convected in the downstream. Geotail magnetosheath observation is compared to the simulation results.

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