Structure of the magnetopause inferred from one-dimensional hybrid simulations

Details Structure of the magnetopause inferred from one-dimensional hybrid simulations Structure of the magnetopause inferred from one-dimensional hybrid simulations

Jul 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995jgr...10011935o&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 100, no. A7, p. 11,935-11,955

Physics

Geophysics

31

Geophysics, Magnetohydrodynamics, Magnetopause, Simulation, Space Plasmas, Boundary Layer Transition, Geomagnetism, Kinetics, Magnetosheath, Solar Wind

Scientific paper

The structure of the magnetopause is investigated by studying the interaction between two plasmas with solar wind and magnetospheric properties. Both Hall-MHD and hybrid (particle ions and fluid electrons) simulations are performed to compare and contrast the nature of the solutions in the fluid and the kinetic limits. It is shown that, in accordance with previous studies, the fluid solutions consist of multiple discontinuities and waves such as slow shocks and waves, as well as contact and rotational discontinuities. In contrast, the kinetic solutions consist of fewer discontinuities and include non-MHD boundaries. The difference between the two types of solutions are attributed to the absence of contact surfaces in collisionless plasmas and the possible Landau damping of slow waves. The kinetic solutions are found to be in a much better agreement with magnetopause observations, which have shown little evidence for the presence of slow shocks or contact discontinuities. The results of kinetic calculations suggest that the presence of a small but finite normal component of the magnetic field allows for the mixing of magnetosheath and magnetospheric plasmas and may, in part, be responsible for the formation of the boundary layer even during the periods of northward interplanetary magnetic field. These results also show that the necessary changes in the fields and the plasma parameters across the magnetopause do not occur simultaneously (i.e., in the same spatial location). As such, the magnetopause cannot be viewed as a single boundary but instead is a region which includes both abrupt and gradual changes in the fields and plasma parameters.

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