Consequences of Ion Shell Instabilities in the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer

Details Consequences of Ion Shell Instabilities in the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer Consequences of Ion Shell Instabilities in the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer

Dec 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufmsm34a..03a&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #SM34A-03

Physics

7827 Kinetic And Mhd Theory, 7829 Kinetic Waves And Instabilities, 7846 Plasma Energization, 7867 Wave/Particle Interactions (2483, 6984)

Scientific paper

Recent Cluster satellite observations made in the Earth's plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) region have shown the presence of ion shell distribution functions coincident with broadband electrostatic waves. The shell distribution functions take the form of ions with about the same drift speed isotropically distributed in velocity space on a sphere and are related to velocity dispersed ion structures (VDIS) in the near-Earth PSBL. We have examined ion shell instabilities in the presence of a cold ion and electron background using a magnetized two-and-one-half-dimensional electrostatic particle in cell code with full dynamics ions and guiding center electrons with full parallel dynamics. Results from the numerical simulations indicate that a series of ion Bernstein modes are preferentially excited transverse to the ambient magnetic field, along with a lower level of wave power at oblique angles. The cold background ions are heated in both the parallel and transverse directions accompanied by electron energy gain parallel to the ambient magnetic field. The preferential transverse energization of the cold background ions is due to a linear non-stochastic ion cyclotron heating mechanism and overall saturation of the instability occurs due to thermalization of the shell combined with the cold background ion heating. Comparison with Cluster observations shows that the observed electrostatic wave spectrum from a few Hz up to several hundred Hz is in good agreement with that expected from the shell instability. Also the cold background ions show a temperature anisotropy with T⊥ > T∥, in qualitative agreement with that expected from the saturation of the shell instability. Finally Cluster electron observations show evidence of heating parallel to the magnetic field. We are in the process of examining electromagnetic aspects of the instability driven by the observed ion shell distribution.

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