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Register a new userFast magnetosonic modes of cylindrical magnetotail
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Authors
I. S. Dmitrienko
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FMS modes are studied in the model of the magnetotail as a cylinder with plasma sheet. The presence of the plasma sheet leads to a significant modification of the modes existing in the magnetotail in the form of a cylinder with no plasma sheet. Azimuthal scales of the FMS modes differ significantly between the lobes and the plasma sheet. The azimuthal scale in the plasma sheet is much smaller than that in the magnetotail lobes. FMS waves with certain parameters are strongly reflected from the boundary between the lobes and the plasma sheet and are very weak in the plasma sheet.
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The Earths magnetotail is characterized by stretched magnetic field lines. Energetic particles are effectively scattered due to the field-line curvature, which then leads to isotropization of energetic particle distributions and particle precipitation to the Earths atmosphere. Measurements of these precipitation at low-altitude spacecraft are thus often used to remotely probe the magnetotail current sheet configuration. This configuration may include spatially localized maxima of the curvature radius at equator (due to localized humps of the equatorial magnetic field magnitude) that reduce the energetic particle scattering and precipitation. Therefore, the measured precipitation patterns are related to the spatial distribution of the equatorial curvature radius that is determined by the magnetotail current sheet configuration. In this study, we show that, contrary to previous thoughts, the magnetic field line configuration with the localized curvature radius maximum can actually enhance the scattering and subsequent precipitation. The spatially localized magnetic field dipolarization (magnetic field humps) can significantly curve magnetic field lines far from the equator and create off-equatorial minima in the curvature radius. Scattering of energetic particles in these off-equatorial regions alters the scattering (and precipitation) patterns, which has not been studied yet. We discuss our results in the context of remote-sensing the magnetotail current sheet configuration with low-altitude spacecraft measurements.
Using multipoint Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations in an unusual string-of-pearls configuration, we examine in detail observations of the reformation of a fast magnetosonic shock observed on the upstream edge of a foreshock transient structure upstream of Earths bow shock. The four MMS spacecraft were separated by several hundred km, comparable to suprathermal ion gyro-radius scales or several ion inertial lengths. At least half of the shock reformation cycle was observed, with a new shock ramp rising up out of the foot region of the original shock ramp. Using the multipoint observations, we convert the observed time-series data into distance along the shock normal in the shocks rest frame. That conversion allows for a unique study of the relative spatial scales of the shocks various features, including the shocks growth rate, and how they evolve during the reformation cycle. Analysis indicates that: the growth rate increases during reformation, electron-scale physics play an important role in the shock reformation, and energy conversion processes also undergo the same cyclical periodicity as reformation. Strong, thin electron-kinetic-scale current sheets and large-amplitude electrostatic and electromagnetic waves are reported. Results highlight the critical cross-scale coupling between electron-kinetic- and ion-kinetic-scale processes and details of the nature of nonstationarity, shock-front reformation at collisionless, fast magnetosonic shocks.
We perform direct analysis of mirror mode instabilities from the general dielectric tensor for several model distributions, in the longwavelength limit. The growth rate at the instability threshold depends on the derivative of the distribution for zero parallel energy. The maximum growth rate is always $sim k_parallel v_{Tparallel}$ and the instability is of nonresonant kind. The instability growth rate and its dependence on the propagation angle depend on the shape of the ion and electron distribution functions.
Mirror modes in collisionless high-temperature plasmas represent macroscopic high-temperature quasi-superconductors. We explicitly calculate the bouncing electron contribution to the ion-mode growth rate, diamagnetic surface current responsible for the Meissner effect, and the weak attracting electric field. The mean electric field turns out to be negligible. Pairing is a second-order effect of minor importance. The physically important effect is the resonant interaction between bouncing electrons and the thermal ion-sound background. It is responsible for the mirror mode to evolve as a phase transition from normal to quasi-superconducting state.
In this study we use the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission to investigate the electron acceleration and thermalization occurring along the magnetic reconnection separatrices in the magnetotail. We find that initially cold electron lobe populations are accelerated towards the X line forming beams with energies up to a few keVs, corresponding to a substantial fraction of the electron thermal energy inside the exhaust. The accelerated electron populations are unstable to the formation of electrostatic waves which develop into nonlinear electrostatic solitary waves. The waves amplitudes are large enough to interact efficiently with a large part of the electron population, including the electron beam. The wave-particle interaction gradually thermalizes the beam, transforming directed drift energy to thermal energy.
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