Diffusive transport of particles from the flank toward midnight resulting from fluctuating electric and magnetic fields in the plasma sheet

Details Diffusive transport of particles from the flank toward midnight resulting from fluctuating electric and magnetic fields in the plasma sheet Diffusive transport of particles from the flank toward midnight resulting from fluctuating electric and magnetic fields in the plasma sheet

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm52a..06w&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM52A-06

Physics

[2712] Magnetospheric Physics / Electric Fields, [2753] Magnetospheric Physics / Numerical Modeling, [2760] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Convection, [2764] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Sheet

Scientific paper

Cold plasma sheet particles can be an order of magnitude more abundant during northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) than during southward IMF. These cold particles are believed to come from the flanks. Flow fluctuations in the plasma sheet can result in diffusive transport that may be important in bringing these particles further toward midnight. To quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of this diffusive transport and how it depends on the characteristics of flow fluctuations, we simulate particles’ drift trajectories along the Y direction under a background time-independent magnetic field and fluctuating electric and magnetic fields that are established based on the Geotail observations. The fluctuating fields are created by a superposition of 500 different waves (non-propagating or propagating waves) with frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 16 mHz and wavelengths ranging from 0.1 to 1 RE (for the propagating waves). The phase differences between each wave, between the electric and magnetic fields, and between the non-propagating waves at different locations are randomly chosen. The power spectrums of the model fields are quantitatively consistent with the observations. Our initial simulation results show that particles originating from a time-independent flank source located at Y = 20 RE can diffuse substantially toward smaller Y within 10 simulation hours. The smallest Y location reached by at least 10% of the source particles ranges from Y = ~15 to 8 RE depending on the characteristics of the waves. For propagating waves, diffusive transport is more effective if waves propagate from the flank toward midnight. For standing waves, waves with higher frequencies (~5 to 16 mHz) result in more pronounced diffusion than lower frequency waves (~0.5-2 mHz). Dependences on other wave characteristics are currently being investigated, including waves with a specified dispersion relation such as that of kinetic Alfvén waves.

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