No Arabic abstract
Waves around the lower hybrid frequency are frequently observed at Earths magnetopause, and readily reach very large amplitudes. Determining the properties of lower hybrid waves is crucial because they are thought to contribute to electron and ion heating, cross-field particle diffusion, anomalous resistivity, and energy transfer between electrons and ions. All these processes could play an important role in magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause and the evolution of the boundary layer. In this paper, the properties of lower hybrid waves at Earths magnetopause are investigated using the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. For the first time, the properties of the waves are investigated using fields and direct particle measurements. The highest-resolution electron moments resolve the velocity and density fluctuations of lower hybrid waves, confirming that electrons remain approximately frozen in at lower hybrid wave frequencies. Using fields and particle moments the dispersion relation is constructed and the wave-normal angle is estimated to be close to $90^{circ}$ to the background magnetic field. The waves are shown to have a finite parallel wave vector, suggesting that they can interact with parallel propagating electrons. The observed wave properties are shown to agree with theoretical predictions, the previously used single-spacecraft method, and four-spacecraft timing analyses. These results show that single-spacecraft methods can accurately determine lower hybrid wave properties.
The impact of high-speed jets -- dynamic pressure enhancements in the magnetosheath -- on the Earths magnetopause has been observed to trigger local magnetic reconnection. We perform a three-dimensional hybrid simulation to study the magnetosheath and magnetopause under turbulent conditions using a quasi-radial southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). In contrast to quasi-steady reconnection with a strong southward IMF, we show that after the impact of a jet on the magnetopause, the magnetopause moves inwards, the current sheet is compressed and intensified and signatures of local magnetic reconnection are observed, showing similarities to spacecraft measurements
We consider the one-dimensional equilibrium problem of a shear-flow boundary layer within an extended Hall-MHD (eHMHD) model of plasma that retains first-order finite Larmor radius (FLR) corrections to the ion dynamics. We provide a generalized version of the analytic expressions for the equilibrium configuration given in Cerri et al. (2013) [Cerri et al., Phys. Plasmas 20, 112112 (2013)], highlighting their intrinsic asymmetry due to the relative orientation of the magnetic field $mathbf{b}=mathbf{B}/|mathbf{B}|$ and the fluid vorticity $mathbf{omega}=mathbf{ abla}timesmathbf{u}$ ($mathbf{omega b}$ asymmetry). Finally, we show that FLR effects can modify the Chapman--Ferraro current layer at the flank magnetopause in a way that is consistent with the observed structure reported by Haaland et al. (2014) [Haaland et al., J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 119, 9019-9037 (2014)]. In particular, we are able to qualitatively reproduce the following key features: (i) the dusk-dawn asymmetry of the current layer, (ii) a double-peak feature in the current profiles, and (iii) adjacent current sheets having thicknesses of several ion Larmor radii and with different current directions.
We analyze the development and influence of turbulence in three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of guide-field magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause with parameters based on observations of an electron diffusion region by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. Along the separatrices the turbulence is a variant of the lower hybrid drift instability (LHDI) that produces electric field fluctuations with amplitudes much greater than the reconnection electric field. The turbulence controls the scale length of the density and current profiles while enabling significant transport across the magnetopause despite the electrons remaining frozen-in to the magnetic field. Near the X-line the electrons are not frozen-in and the turbulence, which differs from the LHDI, makes a significant net contribution to the generalized Ohms law through an anomalous viscosity. The characteristics of the turbulence and associated particle transport are consistent with fluctuation amplitudes in the MMS observations. However, for this event the simulations suggest that the MMS spacecraft were not close enough to the core of the electron diffusion region to identify the region where anomalous viscosity is important.
We present a statistical analysis of more than two thousand bipolar electrostatic solitary waves (ESW) collected from ten quasi-perpendicular Earths bow shock crossings by Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. We developed and implemented a correction procedure for reconstruction of actual electric fields, velocities, and other properties of ESW from measurements, whose spatial scales are typically comparable with or smaller than spatial distance between voltage-sensitive probes. We determined the optimal ratio between frequency response factors of axial and spin plane antennas to be around 1.65/1.8. We found that more than 95% of the ESW in the Earths bow shock are of negative polarity and present an in depth analysis of properties of these ESW. They have spatial scales of about 10--100 m that is within a range of $lambda_{D}$ to $10lambda_{D}$, amplitudes typically below a few Volts that is below 0.1 of local electron temperature, and velocities below a few hundreds km/s in spacecraft and plasma rest frames that is on the order of local ion-acoustic speed. The spatial scales of ESW are distinctly correlated with local Debye length $lambda_{D}$. ESW with amplitudes of 5--30 V or 0.1--0.3 Te have the occurrence rate of a few percent. The ESW have electric fields generally oblique to local magnetic field and propagate highly oblique to shock normal ${bf N}$; more than 80% of ESW propagate within 30$^{circ}$ of the shock plane. In the shock plane, ESW typically propagate within a few tens of degrees of local magnetic field projection ${bf B}_{rm LM}$ onto the shock plane and preferentially opposite to ${bf N}times {bf B}_{rm LM}$. We argue that the ESW of negative polarity are ion phase space holes produced in a nonlinear stage of ion-ion ion-streaming instabilities. We estimated lifetimes of the ion holes to be 10--100 ms, or 1--10 km in terms of spatial distance.
The propagation of Langmuir waves in plasmas is known to be sensitive to density fluctuations. Such fluctuations may lead to the coexistence of wave pairs that have almost opposite wave-numbers in the vicinity of their reflection points. Using high frequency electric field measurements from the WIND satellite, we determine for the first time the wavelength of intense Langmuir wave packets that are generated upstream of the Earths electron foreshock by energetic electron beams. Surprisingly, the wavelength is found to be 2 to 3 times larger than the value expected from standard theory. These values are consistent with the presence of strong inhomogeneities in the solar wind plasma rather than with the effect of weak beam instabilities.