Determination of the polytropic index in the plasma sheet

Details Determination of the polytropic index in the plasma sheet Determination of the polytropic index in the plasma sheet

Apr 1989

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989georl..16..295b&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 16, April 1989, p. 295-298.

Physics

54

Geomagnetic Tail, Planetary Boundary Layer, Polytropic Processes, Space Plasmas, Magnetohydrodynamic Stability, Regression Analysis, Statistical Analysis

Scientific paper

Using eight months of magnetotail plasma data, a statistical survey has been done on the relation between ion density and pressure in the earth's plasmasheet. More than 270,000 spin averaged (4.5 s) samples of ion density and thermal pressure obtained in the central plasma sheet and the plasma sheet boundary layer were cross-correlated in order to obtain typical values of the polytropic index gamma for different tail regions and disturbance conditions. The plasma sheet ion population behaves, on average, adiabatically both in the central plasma sheet and the plasma sheet boundary layer. However, a polytropic index of about 1.4 for the quiet plasma sheet indicates that the latter behaves like a poorly insulated vessel. Hence, there seems to be no quiet time magnetotail equilibrium ('ground state'), but rather continuous cooling until new energy is entering from the outside.

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