Formation of a broad plasma mixing layer by forward and inverse energy cascades of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability

Details Formation of a broad plasma mixing layer by forward and inverse energy cascades of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability Formation of a broad plasma mixing layer by forward and inverse energy cascades of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm12a..06m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM12A-06

Physics

Plasma Physics

[2724] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, [4415] Nonlinear Geophysics / Cascades, [7859] Space Plasma Physics / Transport Processes, [7863] Space Plasma Physics / Turbulence

Scientific paper

The formation mechanism of the LLBL in the magnetosphere is a long standing issue of the magnetospheric physics and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) is one of the candidate mechanisms responsible for its formation. In this presentation, 2D MHD simulation of the KHI in a highly asymmetric density layer shows that rapid formation of a broad plasma mixing layer can be achieved by forward and inverse energy cascades of the KHI. The forward cascade is triggered by the growth of the secondary Rayleigh-Taylor instability [Matsumoto and Hoshino, JGR, 2006] excited during the nonlinear evolution of the KHI. The resultant turbulent evolution enhances the mixing process. The inverse cascade is accomplished by nonlinear mode couplings among the KH unstable modes. Due to the nonlinear mode couplings, the growth of the largest vortex allowed in the system reached 3.7 times as large as the linear growth rate. By a combination of the secondary instability and the rapid growth of the large scale vortex, we show that a plasma mixing layer of a spatial scale of 7 RE is formed within 10 minutes, when 1000 km and 400 km s-1 are adopted for the shear half width and the solar wind flow speed, respectively. The results suggest that the proposed mechanism can be responsible for the formation of the LLBL in the magnetosphere for a purely northward IMF case.

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