2D Hybrid Simulations of Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at the Magnetopause

Physics

Scientific paper

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2724 Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, 2752 Mhd Waves And Instabilities (2149, 6050, 7836), 2753 Numerical Modeling, 2772 Plasma Waves And Instabilities (2471), 7859 Transport Processes

Scientific paper

Most numerical studies of the velocity-shear driven Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at the magnetopause are carried out using MHD simulations. While these simulations have shown the growth of Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices in agreement with fluid theory, they cannot model kinetic aspects of the instability behavior, such as magnetosheath and magnetospheric ion mixing, which are of particular interest. Such micro-physical processes can be modeled using 2D hybrid simulations (kinetic ions and fluid electrons) and the results compared to spacecraft observations. To begin our study of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, we consider the simplest and most unstable case: velocity shear with uniform density and uniform magnetic field across a boundary where the magnetic field is perpendicular to the plasma flow. The simulation results show the mixing of ions from either side of the boundary and the growth of vortical structure, as expected, but the vortices do not become coherently "rolled-up" as is seen in MHD simulations. We discuss several different ways that we calculate the mass transport rate in the simulations.

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