Spatiotemporal characteristics of ultra-low frequency dispersive scale shear Alfvén waves in the Earth's magnetosphere

Details Spatiotemporal characteristics of ultra-low frequency dispersive scale shear Alfvén waves in the Earth's magnetosphere Spatiotemporal characteristics of ultra-low frequency dispersive scale shear Alfvén waves in the Earth's magnetosphere

Apr 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004phpl...11.1268r&link_type=abstract

Physics of Plasmas, Volume 11, Issue 4, pp. 1268-1276 (2004).

Physics

9

Magnetohydrodynamic Waves, Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

The high-latitude nightside auroral zone is threaded by geomagnetic field lines supporting localized ultra-low frequency (ULF) shear Alfvén waves (SAWs). A particular class of dispersive scale ULF waves can be attributed to resonant mode conversion of global scale near-monochromatic compressional waves that are excited by high-speed solar wind flow past the magnetosphere. In the more distant magnetotail, warm plasma dispersive effects preclude the excitation of latitudinally narrow waveforms. Closer to Earth, flux tubes are loaded with colder plasma that favors inertial scale dispersive SAWs and nonlinear wave processes. The spatiotemporal characteristics of ULF shear Alfvén field line resonances near midnight are analyzed, and it is demonstrated that in warm plasma, small-scale nonlinear structuring occurs on field lines where two competing wave dispersion mechanisms cancel. Over realistic time scales, this situation occurs naturally as a result of SAW ponderomotive forces that initiate up-flowing ion motion and Earthward motion of the resonance position in the magnetosphere. The amplitudes, perpendicular widths, and latitudinal dependence of dispersive scale ULF waves are analyzed and compared with ground-based observations.

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