On the generation of field-aligned plasma flow at the boundary of the plasma sheet

Details On the generation of field-aligned plasma flow at the boundary of the plasma sheet On the generation of field-aligned plasma flow at the boundary of the plasma sheet

Jan 1987

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987jgr....92...95s&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 92, Jan. 1, 1987, p. 95-107. DFG-DOE-NASA-supported research.

Physics

42

Boundary Layer Plasmas, Field Aligned Currents, Geomagnetic Tail, Magnetohydrodynamic Flow, Plasma Layers, Plasma-Electromagnetic Interaction, Flow Velocity, Magnetic Field Configurations, Parallel Flow, Plasma Dynamics, Two Dimensional Flow

Scientific paper

A possible cause of the large plasma flow velocities parallel to the magnetic field (which were observed in spacecraft experiments) near the boundary of the plasma sheet in the earth's magnetotail is considered in the framework of a magnetohydrodynamic model. It is shown for steady-state configurations that high parallel flow velocities can be expected to exist on field lines connecting to a region of weak magnetic field. The physical mechanism causing large values of the parallel velocity component can be visualized as a strong imbalance of perpendicular mass flux into and out of magnetic flux tubes passing through regions where the magnetic field is weak and inhomogeneous. The value of the parallel velocity component is evaluated, and it is found that it can substantially exceed the perpendicular velocity (by as much as a factor of 40). The results are applied to the earth's magnetotail; it is found that this mechanism is able to explain the parallel flow velocities near the boundary of the plasma sheet in the range of several hundreds of km/s.

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