How do heavy ions affect plasma entry and transport processes?

Details How do heavy ions affect plasma entry and transport processes? How do heavy ions affect plasma entry and transport processes?

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm32b..06l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM32B-06

Physics

Plasma Physics

[2724] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, [2772] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Waves And Instabilities, [2784] Magnetospheric Physics / Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, [7859] Space Plasma Physics / Transport Processes

Scientific paper

Recent ion composition measurements near the magnetopause have shown that heavy ionospheric ions can dominate the mass density as much as 30 percent of the time. Magnetopause transport processes, such as reconnection, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and kinetic-scale Alfvenic fluctuations, can all be significantly affected by the presence of heavy ions. We examine these processes using MHD, multifluid, and hybrid simulations. Heavy ions modify the onset and growth of the tearing mode as well as reduce the steady state reconnection rate by lowering the Alfven speed. Because increased mass density reduces the effect of magnetic tension, it lowers the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability threshold and increases the growth rate. In 3D MHD simulations, reconnection of the Kelvin-Helmholtz interchanged flux can lead to mass transport through competing processes (increased mass density leads to increased growth rate/vortex size but lower reconnection rate). However, we find that the reduced Alfven speed is compensated by increased shear in the boundary regions so that the reconnection rate adjusts as necessary to reconnect the interchanged flux, and transfer of flux is mostly determined by growth of the vortex (larger for heavier mass density and larger shear). We also examine the dependence of Kelvin-Helmholtz growth rate, nonlinear vortex development, and plasma mixing on heavy ion mass using hybrid simulations. We find that while heavier mass ions can increase growth rates when there is a gradient of the heavy ion population across the magnetopause boundary, that ion inertial effects can also play an important stabilizing role for ions with heavier mass. The presence of heavy ions can also increase the efficiency of mode conversion of compressional Pc3 waves to transverse, field-aligned Alfven modes with small-scale structure perpendicular the the magnetopause. We examine this process with hybrid simulations including heavy ions. We examine whether nonlinear heating and transport associated with mode converted waves will preferentially affect the heavy ions. Finally, we consider the implications of asymmetric distributions of heavy ions on plasma entry mechanisms.

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