Turbulent transport of cold and dense solar wind plasma into the magnetosphere by 3-D evolution of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability

Details Turbulent transport of cold and dense solar wind plasma into the magnetosphere by 3-D evolution of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability Turbulent transport of cold and dense solar wind plasma into the magnetosphere by 3-D evolution of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm31a0306m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM31A-0306

Physics

2724 Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 4490 Turbulence (3379, 4568, 7863), 7839 Nonlinear Phenomena (4400, 6944), 7859 Transport Processes

Scientific paper

An appearance of cold and dense plasma at the geosynchronous orbit is one of the characteristic natures after a prolonged northward IMF duration. This cold dense material can contribute to the enhancement of the ring current density, which results a further declination of Dst. Therefore investigating the origin, path and fate of the cold dense plasma is important to understand how it preconditions the magnetosphere during a quiet interval before storm [Borovsky and Steinberg, 2006]. Observational evidences have shown that the cold dense material builds up during the northward IMF intervals in the flanks of the magnetosphere [e.g., Wing and Newell, 2002] which is referred to as the low latitude boundary layer (LLBL). The entry process of the solar wind plasma into the magnetosphere during the northward IMF conditions has been controversial in contrast to the Dungey's reconnection model for the southward IMF cases. The major candidate processes are the double lobe reconnection model [Song et al., 1999], in which newly closed magnetic field lines on the dayside magnetopause capture the solar wind plasma, and the turbulent transport by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) driven by the fast solar wind flow.
We have studied the solar wind entry process by the KHI. Matsumoto and Hoshino [2004, 2006] showed by 2- D MHD and full particle simulation studies that the strong flow turbulence is a natural consequence of the nonlinear development of the KHI through the secondary Rayleigh-Taylor instability, if there is a large density difference between the two media. The mechanism is fundamentally two-dimensional and therefore we term it the 2-D secondary instability. They also showed that the turbulent development greatly contributes to the solar wind plasma transport deep into the magnetosphere. Based on the previous 2-D studies, the 3-D nonlinear evolution of the KHI is studied by performing MHD simulation. Starting with a uniform background field configuration and a velocity shear layer, we obtained a unique feature which arose due to the three- dimensionality: The KH vortex is susceptible to the 3-D secondary instability which converts the rotating energy into the magnetic energy by generating large amplitude Alfvenic fluctuations. Once the 3-D secondary instability is excited, the mode cascade starts after the amplitude of the fluctuation reaches to a certain level compared to the background field. In this presentation, we show that the nonlinear evolution of the KHI by introducing the 2-D and 3-D secondary instabilities can contribute to the effective mass transport of the solar wind plasma into the magnetosphere during the prolonged northward IMF intervals.
References J. E. Borovsky and J. T. Steinberg (2006), J. Geophys. Res., 111, A07S10. Y. Matsumoto and M.Hoshino (2004), Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L02807. Y. Matsumoto and M.Hoshino (2006), J. Geophys. Res., 111, A05213. P. Song et al. (1999), J. Geophys. Res., 104, 28,361. S. Wing and P. T. Newell (2002), Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 1307.

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