Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm13c2094c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM13C-2094
Physics
[2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [2764] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Sheet, [2772] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Waves And Instabilities
Scientific paper
The most common description of magnetotail dynamics including the generation of bursty bulk flows and plasma sheet disruption involves magnetic reconnection. This scenario, however, must deal with the problems of reconnection onset in the presence of a normal magnetic field and the inability to explain the east-west localization of the flow bursts and disruptions. An alternative mechanism involves the excitation of interchange modes that are driven by the need to return earthward magnetic flux that has been convected tailward during the growth phase of substorms. The interchange modes form in the mid-tail with wavelength on the order of the equatorial ion gyroradius in regions where the electron dynamics is adiabatic. In their nonlinear evolution the modes steepen to form interchange heads as they propagate earthward. These heads exhibit many of the same properties as do the leading edges of the reconnection exhaust jets. 3-D particle-in-cell simulations are used to study and contrast the properties of the reconnection jets and interchange heads. An attempt will be made to determine whether interchange can occur naturally at the front of the reconnection jet and thus provide a unified description of the dipolarization front properties.
Coroniti Ferdinan V.
Pritchett Philip L.
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