Physics
Scientific paper
Nov 1980
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1980georl...7..897e&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 7, Nov. 1980, p. 897-900.
Physics
75
Convective Flow, Geomagnetic Tail, Plasma Layers, Space Plasmas, Adiabatic Conditions, Lines Of Force, Magnetospheric Instability, Plasma Pressure, Steady Flow
Scientific paper
A theoretical argument suggesting that steady, adiabatic convection probably cannot occur throughout a closed-magnetic-field-line region that extends into a long magnetotail is presented. If plasma in a typical flux tube in the earth's outer plasma sheet were compressed adiabatically as it convected into the near-earth part of the plasma sheet, the plasma pressure would be absurdly large there. This excess-pressure problem is demonstrated numerically for several standard models of the magnetospheric magnetic field, for the case of isotropic pressure. It is argued that the excess-pressure problem results from the general shapes of field lines in the inner and outer plasma sheet, and not from simple inaccuracies in all the magnetic-field models. It is hypothesized that sunward convection must necessarily be time dependent, and that the magnetospheric substorm may be the essential time-dependent process in which plasma is suddenly and nonadiabatically released from plasma-sheet flux tubes.
Erickson Gary M.
Wolf Richard A.
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