کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
1781740 1022300 2011 8 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
A case study of Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices on both flanks of the Earth's magnetotail
موضوعات مرتبط
مهندسی و علوم پایه علوم زمین و سیارات فیزیک زمین (ژئو فیزیک)
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
A case study of Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices on both flanks of the Earth's magnetotail
چکیده انگلیسی

Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) is a fundamental fluid dynamical process that develops in a velocity shear layer. It is excited on the tail-flanks of the Earth's magnetosphere where the flowing magnetosheath plasma and the stagnant magnetospheric plasma sit adjacent to each other. This instability is thought to induce vortical structures and play an important role in plasma transport there. While KHI vortices have been detected, the earlier observations were performed only on one flank at a time and questions related to dawn–dusk asymmetry were not addressed. Here, we report a case where KHI vortices grow more or less simultaneously and symmetrically on both flanks, despite all the factors that may have broken the symmetry. Yet, energy distributions of ions in and around the vortices show a remarkable dawn–dusk asymmetry. Our results thus suggest that although the initiation and development of the KHI depend primarily on the macroscopic properties of the flow, the observed enhancement of ion energy transport around the dawn side vortices may be linked to microphysical processes including wave-particle interactions. Possible coupling between macro- and micro-scales, if it is at work, suggests a role for KHI not only within the Earth's magnetosphere (e.g., magnetopause and geomagnetic tail) but also in other regions where shear flows of magnetized plasma play important roles.

ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Planetary and Space Science - Volume 59, Issue 7, May 2011, Pages 502–509
نویسندگان
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