scholarly journals Statistical study of linear magnetic hole structures near Earth

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Volwerk ◽  
David Mautner ◽  
Cyril Simon Wedlund ◽  
Charlotte Goetz ◽  
Ferdinand Plaschke ◽  
...  

Abstract. The MMS1 data for 8 months in the winter periods of 2017–2018 and 2018–2019, when MMS had its apogee in the upstream solar wind of the Earth's bow shock, are used to study Linear Magnetic Holes (LMHs). These LMHs are characterized by a magnetic depression of more than 50 % and a rotation of the background magnetic field of less then 10°. 426 LMHs are found and, based on their magnetoplasma characteristics, are split into three categories: cold (increase in density, little change in ion temperature), hot (increase in ion temperature, decrease in density) and sign change (at least one magnetic field component changes sign). The occurrence rate of LMHs is 2.3 per day. All LMHs are basically in pressure balance with the ambient plasma. Most of the linear magnetic holes are found in ambient plasmas that are stable against the mirror-mode generation, but only half of the holes are mirror-mode stable inside.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-253
Author(s):  
Martin Volwerk ◽  
David Mautner ◽  
Cyril Simon Wedlund ◽  
Charlotte Goetz ◽  
Ferdinand Plaschke ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS1) data for 8 months in the winter periods of 2017–2018 and 2018–2019, when MMS had its apogee in the upstream solar wind of the Earth's bow shock, are used to study linear magnetic holes (LMHs). These LMHs are characterized by a magnetic depression of more than 50 % and a rotation of the background magnetic field of less then 10∘. A total of 406 LMHs are found and, based on their magnetoplasma characteristics, are split into three categories: cold (increase in density, little change in ion temperature), hot (increase in ion temperature, decrease in density) and sign change (at least one magnetic field component changes sign). The occurrence rate of LMHs is 2.3 per day. All LMHs are basically in pressure balance with the ambient plasma. Most of the linear magnetic holes are found in ambient plasmas that are stable against the mirror-mode generation, but only half of the holes are mirror-mode-stable inside.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuanpeng Hou ◽  
Xingyu Zhu ◽  
Rui Zhuo ◽  
Jiansen He

<p>Parker Solar Probe’s (PSP) observations near the sun show the extensive presence of magnetic field kinks (switchback for large kinks) in the slow solar wind. These kinks are usually accompanied by the enhancement of radial solar wind velocity and ion temperature, increasing or decreasing of number density. The magnetic field kinks have also been observed by WIND and Ulysses to exist near and beyond 1 AU, respectively. In this study, we statistically analyze the property difference of magnetic field kinks observed by PSP and WIND. We obtain the following four points of results. (1) Inside the PSP-kinks, the radial velocity and protons’ temperature increase while density shows enhancement or descent. However, inside the WIND-kinks, besides the slight enhancement of radial velocity, the density and temperature show no obvious change compared with the outside plasma. (2) By employing the Walen-test of kinks, we find that, R components of some PSP-kinks but not all satisfy the rotational discontinuity (RD) features, while the three components of most WIND-kinks well match the RD features. (3) The correlation between magnetic field and velocity inside the PSP-kinks and WIND-kinks does not show significant differences. (4) Both the PSP-kinks and WIND-kinks can be divided into two groups based on the histograms of θ<sub>Bn</sub>, where B is the background magnetic field, and n is the normal direction of kink. The first group (group-I) has θ<sub>Bn</sub> concentrating around 20° for PSP-kinks and 30° for WIND-kinks, indicating that the satellites were crossing the same kinked interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) from the upstream to the downstream. The second group (group-II) has θ<sub>Bn</sub> concentrating around 90° for PSP-kinks and WIND-kinks, suggesting that the satellites were crossing an interface between the unkinked and kinked IMF regions. Our findings help better understanding the nature of kinks and provide the observational basis for testifying models about radial propagation and evolution of magnetic field kinks.</p>


Author(s):  
Zdeněk Němeček ◽  
Kostiantyn Grygorov ◽  
Jana Šafránková ◽  
Jiří Šimůnek ◽  
Gilbert Pi

Magnetic pressure inside the magnetopause is usually balanced with a sum of thermal plasma and magnetic pressures on the magnetosheath side. However, observations reveal that the magnetosheath magnetic field can be frequently larger than that in the magnetosphere (inverse magnetic field gradient across the magnetopause), and thus, the enhanced pressure from the magnetosheath side seems to be uncompensated. Such events are rare in the subsolar region, but their occurrence rate increases toward flanks. The analysis, based on statistical processing of about 35,000 THEMIS magnetopause crossings collected in the course of the years 2007–2017, shows that these events are more frequently observed under enhanced geomagnetic activity that is connected with a strong southward IMF. Case studies reveal that such a state of the magnetopause boundary layers can persist for several hours. This study discusses conditions and mechanisms keeping the pressure balance across the magnetopause under these conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-742
Author(s):  
Katharina Ostaszewski ◽  
Karl-Heinz Glassmeier ◽  
Charlotte Goetz ◽  
Philip Heinisch ◽  
Pierre Henri ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a statistical survey of large-amplitude, asymmetric plasma and magnetic field enhancements detected outside the diamagnetic cavity at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from December 2014 to June 2016. Based on the concurrent observations of plasma and magnetic field enhancements, we interpret them to be magnetosonic waves. The aim is to provide a general overview of these waves' properties over the mission duration. As the first mission of its kind, the ESA Rosetta mission was able to study the plasma properties of the inner coma for a prolonged time and during different stages of activity. This enables us to study the temporal evolution of these waves and their characteristics. In total, we identified ∼ 70 000 steepened waves in the magnetic field data by means of machine learning. We observe that the occurrence of these steepened waves is linked to the activity of the comet, where steepened waves are primarily observed at high outgassing rates. No clear indications of a relationship between the occurrence rate and solar wind conditions were found. The waves are found to propagate predominantly perpendicular to the background magnetic field, which indicates their compressional nature. Characteristics like amplitude, skewness, and width of the waves were extracted by fitting a skew normal distribution to the magnetic field magnitude of individual steepened waves. With increasing mass loading, the average amplitude of the waves decreases, while the skewness increases. Using a modified 1D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model, we investigated if the waves can be described by the combination of nonlinear and dissipative effects. By combining the model with observations of amplitude, width and skewness, we obtain an estimate of the effective plasma diffusivity in the comet–solar wind interaction region and compare it with suitable reference values as a consistency check. At 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, these steepened waves are of particular importance as they dominate the innermost interaction region for intermediate to high activity.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Ostaszewski ◽  
Karl-Heinz Glassmeier ◽  
Charlotte Goetz ◽  
Philip Heinisch ◽  
Pierre Henri ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a statistical survey of large amplitude, asymmetric plasma, and magnetic field enhancements at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from December 2014 to June 2016. The aim is to provide a general overview of these structures' properties over the mission duration. At comets, nonlinear wave evolution plays an integral part in the development of turbulence and in particular facilitates the transfer of energy and momentum. As the first mission of its kind, the ESA Rosetta mission was able to study the plasma properties of the inner coma for a prolonged time and during different stages of activity. This enables us to study the temporal evolution of steepened waves and their characteristics. In total, we identified ~70000 events in the magnetic field data by means of machine learning. We observe that the occurrence of wave events is linked to the activity of the comet, where events are primarily observed at high outgassing rates. No clear indications of a relationship between the occurrence rate and solar wind conditions were found. The waves are found to propagate predominantly perpendicular to the background magnetic field, which indicates their compressive nature. Characteristics like amplitude, skewness, and width of the waves were extracted by fitting a skew normal distribution to the magnetic field magnitude of individual events. With increasing massloading the average amplitude of steepened waves decreases while the skewness increases. Using a modified 1D MHD model it was possible to show that such solitary structures can be described by the combination of nonlinear, dispersive, and dissipative effects. By combining the model with observations of amplitude, width, and skewness we obtain an estimate of the effective plasma viscosity in the comet-solar wind interaction region. At 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko steepened waves are of particular importance as they dominate the innermost interaction region for intermediate to high activity.


1977 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. F. Cramer

The parametric excitation of slow, intermediate (Alfvén) and fast magneto-acoustic waves by a modulated spatially non-uniform magnetic field in a plasma with a finite ratio of gas pressure to magnetic pressure is considered. The waves are excited in pairs, either pairs of the same mode, or a pair of different modes. The growth rates of the instabilities are calculated and compared with the known result for the Alfvén wave in a zero gas pressure plasma. The only waves that are found not to be excited are the slow plus fast wave pair, and the intermediate plus slow or fast wave pair (unless the waves have a component of propagation direction perpendicular to both the background magnetic field and the direction of non-uniformity of the field).


1990 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew N. Wright

In a cold plasma the wave equation for solely compressional magnetic field perturbations appears to decouple in any surface orthogonal to the background magnetic field. However, the compressional fields in any two of these surfaces are related to each other by the condition that the perturbation field b be divergence-free. Hence the wave equations in these surfaces are not truly decoupled from one another. If the two solutions happen to be ‘matched’ (i.e. V.b = 0) then the medium may execute a solely compressional oscillation. If the two solutions are unmatched then transverse fields must evolve. We consider two classes of compressional solutions and derive a set of criteria for when the medium will be able to support pure compressional field oscillations. These criteria relate to the geometry of the magnetic field and the plasma density distribution. We present the conditions in such a manner that it is easy to see if a given magnetoplasma is able to executive either of the compressional solutions we investigate.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (25) ◽  
pp. 1850144
Author(s):  
Maryam Gholizadeh Arashti ◽  
Majid Dehghani

The Schwinger effect in the presence of instantons and background magnetic field was considered to study the dependence of critical electric field on instanton density and magnetic field using AdS/CFT conjecture. The gravity side is the near horizon limit of D3[Formula: see text]D(−[Formula: see text]1) background with electric and magnetic fields on the brane. Our approach is based on the potential analysis for particle–antiparticle pair at zero and finite temperatures, where the zero temperature case is a semi-confining theory. We find that presence of instantons suppresses the pair creation effect, similar to a background magnetic field. Then, the production rate will be obtained numerically using the expectation value of circular Wilson loop. The obtained production rate in a magnetic field is in agreement with previous results.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ameneh Mousavi ◽  
Kaijun Liu ◽  
Sina Sadeghzadeh

<p><span>The stability of the pickup ions in the outer heliosheath has been studied by many researchers because of its relevance to the energetic neutral atom (ENA) ribbon observed by the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer. However, previous studies are primarily limited to pickup ions of near </span><span>90° </span><span>pickup angles, the angle between the pickup ion injection velocity and the background, local interstellar magnetic field. Investigations on pickup ions of smaller pickup angles are still lacking. In this paper, linear kinetic dispersion analysis and hybrid simulations are carried out to examine the plasma instabilities driven by pickup ions of ring-beam velocity distributions at various pickup angles between zero and </span><span>90°</span><span>. </span><span>Parallel propagating waves are studied in the parameter regime where the parallel thermal spread of the pickup ions falls into the Alfvén cyclotron stability gap. </span><span>The linear analysis results and hybrid simulations both show that the fastest growing modes are the right-hand helicity waves propagating in the direction of the background magnetic field, and the maximum growth rate occurs at the pickup angle of </span><span>82°</span><span>. The simulation results further reveal that the saturation level of the fluctuating magnetic fields for pickup angles below </span><span>45° </span><span>is higher than that for pickup angles above </span><span>45°</span><span>. So, the scattering of pickup ions at near zero pickup angles is likely more pronounced than that at near </span><span>90° </span><span>pickup angles</span> .</p>


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