Interpretation of recent AMPTE data at the magnetopause

Details Interpretation of recent AMPTE data at the magnetopause Interpretation of recent AMPTE data at the magnetopause

Feb 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997jgr...102.2115h&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 102, Issue A2, p. 2115-2124

Physics

Plasma Physics

13

Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, Space Plasma Physics: Magnetic Reconnection

Scientific paper

Phan and Paschmann [1996] have done a superposed epoch analysis of conditions near the dayside magnetopause and have found significant structure within the magnetopause current sheet itself. Among their many important results is that the electron temperature for an outward profile shows cooling of the solar wind plasma for the inner part followed by heating for the outer. Since these two cases are associated with E-J<0 and E.J>0, this pivotal result can be interpreted as evidence for a dynamo-load combination. This was hypothesized by Heikkila [1982a] for the localized impulsive penetration of solar wind plasma through the magnetopause current sheet; the process involves an inductive electric field Eind given by Lenz's law around the current perturbation (the electromotive force) and a plasma response through charge separation caused by Eind, a process which is controlled by the normal component of the magnetic field Bn at the magnetopause. A dynamo is not included in the standard definition of reconnection, only the reconnection load. Another key result is a remarkable difference between inbound and outbound crossings of the normal component of plasma velocity vn. This can be understood on the basis of two complementary processes involving (1) a polarization electric field which does not depend on the movement of the magnetopause itself [Lemaire and Roth, 1978] and (2) the inductive electric field due to magnetopause erosion which does. These results have opened a new chapter on solar wind-magnetospheric interaction. They demonstrate that the concepts of frozen-in flow and of magnetic reconnection (as defined) are inappropriate at the magnetopause. Rather, the interaction of the solar wind plasma at the magnetopause depends on a localized pressure pulse whose effects vary greatly on the magnetic field topology, i.e., whether the magnetopause is a tangential or rotational discontinuity. Since the plasma is doing work, this is a form of viscous interaction.

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