Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Aug 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008jgra..11308216s&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 113, Issue A8, CiteID A08216
Physics
Plasma Physics
3
Space Plasma Physics: Kinetic And Mhd Theory, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere: Inner, Magnetospheric Physics: Plasma Convection (2463), Magnetospheric Physics: Numerical Modeling
Scientific paper
In the inner magnetosphere, the plasma flows are mostly slow compared to thermal or Alfvén speeds, but the convection is far away from the ideal magnetohydrodynamic regime since the gradient/curvature drifts become significant. Both kinetic (Wolf, 1983) and two-fluid (Peymirat and Fontaine, 1994; Heinemann, 1999) formalisms have been used to describe plasma dynamics, but it is not fully understood how they relate to each other. We explore the relations among kinetic, fluid, and recently developed ``average'' (Liu, 2006) models in an attempt to find the simplest yet realistic way to describe the convection. First, we prove analytically that the model of (Liu, 2006), when closed with the assumption of a Maxwellian distribution, is equivalent to the fluid model of (Heinemann, 1999). Second, we analyze the transport of both one-dimensional and two-dimensional Gaussian-shaped blob of hot plasma. For the kinetic case, it is known that the time evolution of such a blob is gradual spreading in time. For the fluid case, Heinemann and Wolf (2001a, 2001b) showed that in a one-dimensional idealized case, the blob separates into two drifting at different speeds. We present a fully nonlinear solution of this case, confirming this behavior but demonstrating what appears to be a shocklike steepening of the faster drifting secondary blob. A new, more realistic two-dimensional example using the dipole geometry with a uniform electric field confirms the one-dimensional solutions. Implications for the numerical simulations of magnetospheric dynamics are discussed.
Sazykin Stanislav
Song Yang
Wolf Richard A.
No associations
LandOfFree
On the relationship between kinetic and fluid formalisms for convection in the inner magnetosphere does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with On the relationship between kinetic and fluid formalisms for convection in the inner magnetosphere, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and On the relationship between kinetic and fluid formalisms for convection in the inner magnetosphere will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1861368