Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-7drxs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T16:33:25.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plasma sheet thinning due to loss of near-Earth magnetotail plasma

Part of: Focus on Plasma Astrophysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2021

Rudolf Tretler Open the ORCID record for Rudolf Tretler [Opens in a new window] ,
Tomo Tatsuno  and
Keisuke Hosokawa Open the ORCID record for Keisuke Hosokawa [Opens in a new window]
Rudolf Tretler*
Affiliation:
Department of Communication Engineering and Informatics, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo182-8585, Japan
Tomo Tatsuno
Affiliation:
Department of Computer and Network Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo182-8585, Japan
Keisuke Hosokawa
Affiliation:
Department of Computer and Network Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo182-8585, Japan
*
†Email address for correspondence: rtretler@protonmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A one-dimensional (1-D) model for thinning of the Earth's plasma sheet (Chao et al., Planet. Space Sci., vol. 25, 1977, p. 703) according to the current disruption (CD) model of auroral breakup is extended to two dimensions. A rarefaction wave, which is a signature component of the CD model, is generated with an initial disturbance. In the 1-D gas model, the rarefaction wave propagates tailward at sound velocity and is assumed to cause thinning. Extending to a two-dimensional (2-D) gas model of a simplified plasma sheet configuration, the rarefaction wave is weakened, and the thinning ceases to propagate. Extending further to a 2-D plasma model by adding magnetic field into the lobes, the rarefaction wave is quickly lost in the plasma sheet recompression, but the plasma sheet thinning is still present. It propagates at a slower velocity than a 1-D model suggests, behind a wave train of pulses of increased pressure generated by the thinning process itself. This shows that the dynamics of plasma sheet thinning may be dominated by sheet–lobe interactions that are absent from the 1-D model and may not support the behaviour assumed by the CD model.

Keywords

plasma simulationspace plasma physicsplasma waves
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 87 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , 905870108
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Akasofu, S.-I. 1968 Polar and Magnetospheric Substorms. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angelopoulos, V. 2008 The THEMIS mission. Space Sci. Rev. 141 (1–4), 5–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angelopoulos, V., McFadden, J. P., Larson, D., Carlson, C. W., Mende, S. B., Frey, H., Phan, T., Sibeck, D. G., Glassmeier, K.-H., Auster, U., et al. 2008 Tail reconnection triggering substorm onset. Science 321 (5891), 931–935.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baker, D. N., Pulkkinen, T. I., Angelopoulos, V., Baumjohann, W. & McPherron, R. L. 1996 Neutral line model of substorms: past results and present view. J. Geophys. Res. 101 (A6), 12975–13010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumjohann, W., Paschmann, G. & Cattell, C. A. 1989 Average plasma properties in the central plasma sheet. J. Geophys. Res. 94 (A6), 6597–6606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumjohann, W., Paschmann, G. & Lühr, H. 1990 Pressure balance between lobe and plasma sheet. Geophys. Res. Lett. 17 (1), 45–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumjohann, W. & Treumann, R. A. 2012 Basic Space Plasma Physics, revised edn. Imperial College Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brio, M. & Wu, C. C. 1988 An upwind differencing scheme for the equations of ideal magnetohydrodynamics. J. Comput. Phys. 75, 400–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandrasekhar, S. 1981 Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability. Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Chao, J. K., Kan, J. R., Lui, A. T. Y. & Akasofu, S.-I. 1977 A model for thinning of the plasma sheet. Planet. Space Sci. 25, 703–710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottlieb, S. & Shu, C.-W. 1998 Total variation diminishing Runge–Kutta schemes. Maths Comput. 67 (221), 73–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harten, A. 1987 Uniformly high order accurate essentially non-oscillatory schemes, III. J. Comput. Phys. 71, 231–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landau, L. D. & Lifshitz, E. M. 1987 Fluid Mechanics: Volume 6 (Course Of Theoretical Physics). Butterworth-Heinemann.Google Scholar
Liou, K., Meng, C.-I., Lui, A. T. Y., Newell, P. T. & Wing, S. 2002 Magnetic dipolarization with substorm expansion onset. J. Geophys. Res.: Space Phys. 107 (A7), SMP–23.Google Scholar
Lui, A. T. Y. 1991 A synthesis of magnetospheric substorm models. J. Geophys. Res.: Space Phys. 96 (A2), 1849–1856.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lui, A. T. Y. 1996 Current disruption in the earth's magnetosphere: observations and models. J. Geophys. Res.: Space Phys. 101 (A6), 13067–13088.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lui, A. T. Y. 2009 Comment on “Tail reconnection triggering substorm onset”. Science 324 (5933), 1391–1391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lui, A. T. Y., Meng, C.-I. & Akasofu, S.-I. 1977 Search for the magnetic neutral line in the near-Earth plasma sheet 2. Systematic study of Imp 6 magnetic field observations. J. Geophys. Res. 82 (10), 1547–1565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mende, S. B., Harris, S. E., Frey, H. U., Angelopoulos, V., Russell, C. T., Donovan, E., Jackel, B., Greffen, M. & Peticolas, L. M. 2008 The THEMIS array of ground-based observatories for the study of auroral substorms. Space Sci. Rev. 141 (1–4), 357–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, K. G. 1994 An approximate Riemann solver for magnetohydrodynamics. ICASE report 94-24.Google Scholar
Ryu, D., Jones, T. W. & Frank, A. 1995 Numerical magnetohydrodynamics in astrophysics: algorithm and tests for multidimensional flow. Astrophys. J. 452, 785–796.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schindler, K. 1975 Plasma and fields in the magnetospheric tail. Space Sci. Rev. 17 (2–4), 589–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, C.-W. 1998 Essentially non-oscillatory and weighted essentially non-oscillatory schemes for hyperbolic conservation laws. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 1697, pp. 325–432. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tretler, R. 2019 MHD2D solver. https://github.com/piccolo255/mhd2d-solver.Google Scholar
Tretler, R., Tatsuno, T. & Hosokawa, K. 2020 Loss of the rarefaction wave during plasma sheet thinning. Plasma Fusion Res. 15, 2401053.CrossRefGoogle Scholar