Evidence for helical kink instability in the Venus magnetic flux ropes

Details Evidence for helical kink instability in the Venus magnetic flux ropes Evidence for helical kink instability in the Venus magnetic flux ropes

Jun 1983

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1983georl..10..459e&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 10, June 1983, p. 459-462.

Physics

4

Magnetic Field Configurations, Magnetic Flux, Magnetohydrodynamic Stability, Planetary Ionospheres, Planetary Magnetic Fields, Venus Atmosphere, Perturbation Theory, Plasma Dynamics, Spirals, Vertical Distribution

Scientific paper

Empirical models of the magnetic field structure of flux ropes found in the Venus ionosphere are seen as suggesting that the ropes are unstable to long-wavelength (more than 100 km) helical-kink perturbations. The onset of such an instability can explain the apparent volume distribution of flux ropes with altitude, as well as their orientation as a function of altitude. In the subsolar region, the fraction of volume occupied by flux ropes increases from approximately 20 percent at high altitudes to more than 50 percent at low altitudes; this is a greater increase than would be expected if ropes convect downward as simple straight horizontal cylinders. The helical kink instability raises the fractional volume occupied by ropes by turning the originally straight, horizontal flux tubes into corkscrew-shaped structures as they convect to lower altitudes. It is noted that this instability also explains why high altitude ropes tend to be horizontal and low altitude ropes appear to have almost any orientation.

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