Asymmetric plasma mixing via symmetrically developed vortices at the Earth's magnetopause

Details Asymmetric plasma mixing via symmetrically developed vortices at the Earth's magnetopause Asymmetric plasma mixing via symmetrically developed vortices at the Earth's magnetopause

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsm53b..07f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SM53B-07

Other

2724 Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, 2772 Plasma Waves And Instabilities (2471), 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 7859 Transport Processes

Scientific paper

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) is a fundamental fluid dynamical process that develops in a velocity shear layer. KHI is also excited in the tail-flanks of the magnetosphere where the flowing solar wind (SW) and the stagnant magnetospheric plasma sit adjacent to each other. It is considered to play an important role in the plasma mixing around the boundary under northward SW magnetic field when the SW entry into the magnetosphere is most enhanced. While KHI vortices have been detected, the observations have been performed only one side at a time and the questions related to dawn-dusk asymmetry have not been addressed. Here we show simultaneous detection in both flanks of KHI vortices under northward magnetic field condition. Visualization of the flow pattern indicates that the vortices grow quite symmetrically despite all the factors that may have broken the symmetry. Yet, the resultant plasma mixings show remarkable asymmetry in the ion energy distributions. Our results suggest that plasma mixing depends on the vorticity of the KHI vortices and may be related to microscale physics.

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