Search Publications
Statistical characteristics of slow earthward and tailward flows in the plasma sheet
Dunlop, M. W.; Baumjohann, W.; Rème, H. +3 more
In this paper, we statistically analyzed and compared the earthward flow (EF) and the tailward flow (TF) in the plasma sheet. It is found that the properties of the EF/TF in the central plasma sheet (CPS) of β > 1 and the outer plasma sheet (OPS) of 0.1 < β < 1 are distinctly different. The main conclusions include that (1) the EFs occur …
Influence of local ionization on ionospheric densities in Titan's upper atmosphere
Galand, Marina; Coates, Andrew J.; Vigren, Erik +6 more
Titan has the most chemically complex ionosphere of the solar system. The main sources of ions on the dayside are ionization by EUV solar radiation and on the nightside include ionization by precipitated electrons from Saturn's magnetosphere and transport of ions from the dayside, but many questions remain open. How well do models predict local io…
Statistics of Langmuir wave amplitudes observed inside Saturn's foreshock by the Cassini spacecraft
Gurnett, Donald A.; Kurth, William S.; Hospodarsky, George B. +5 more
We present the first systematic study of Langmuir wave amplitudes in Saturn's foreshock using the Cassini Radio and Plasma Wave Science/Wideband Receiver measurements. We analyzed all foreshock crossings from June 2004 to December 2009 using an automatic method to identify Langmuir waves. Using this method, almost 3 × 105 waveform inter…
Formation of self-organized shear structures in thin current sheets
Malova, H. V.; Popov, V. Yu.; Delcourt, D. C. +8 more
Self-consistent kinetic (particle-in-cell) model of magnetotail thin current sheet (TCS) is used to understand the formation of self-consistent sheared magnetic structures. It is shown that shear configurations appear in TCS as a result of self-consistent evolution of some initial magnetic perturbation at the current sheet center. Two general shap…
Investigation of the Chirikov resonance overlap criteria for equatorial magnetosonic waves
Walker, S. N.; Canu, P.; Balikhin, M. A. +2 more
Observations of equatorial magnetosonic waves made during the Cluster Inner Magnetospheric Campaign clearly show discrete spectra consisting of emissions around harmonics of the proton gyrofrequency. Equatorial magnetosonic waves are important because of their ability to efficiently scatter electrons in energy and pitch angle. This wave-particle i…
Plasma waves around separatrix in collisionless magnetic reconnection with weak guide field
Ji, Hantao; Xiao, Chijie; Fujimoto, Keizo +1 more
Electrostatic and electromagnetic waves excited by electron beam around the separatrix region are analyzed in detail during the collisionless magnetic reconnection with a weak guide field by using 2-D particle-in-cell simulation with the adaptive mesh refinement. Broadband electrostatic waves are excited both in the inflow and outflow regions arou…
The relative proportions of water group ions in Saturn's inner magnetosphere: A preliminary study
Wilson, R. J.; Crary, F.; Bagenal, F. +2 more
We present a technique to gather ion composition information in the form of relative abundances of the water group ion species in Saturn's inner magnetosphere, utilizing the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer's Straight-Through Time-of-Flight data from two orbits in 2011. We show that between 4.75 and 8 Saturn radii H2O+ ions domina…
Modeling the effects of ionospheric oxygen outflow on bursty magnetotail flows
Merkin, V. G.; Hughes, W. J.; Moore, T. E. +2 more
Using a global multifluid MHD model, we demonstrate the effects of magnetospheric O+ on bursty magnetotail flows. We carry out two simulations without ionospheric outflow to use as baseline, one driven by real solar wind data and one driven by idealized solar wind. Solar wind data from 1 October 2001 are used as a storm time solar wind …
Supercriticality of ICME and CIR shocks
Zhou, Xiaoyan; Smith, Edward J.
Interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) and corotating interaction region (CIR) shocks are characterized in terms of supercriticality introduced by Edmiston and Kennel (1984) to classify shocks based on whether dissipation is provided by electron resistivity alone or also requires ion viscosity. The condition for determining supercriticality i…
The use of the Poynting vector in interpreting ULF waves in magnetospheric waveguides
Wright, A. N.; Elsden, T.
We numerically model ultralow frequency (ULF) waves in the magnetosphere assuming an ideal, low-β, inhomogeneous plasma waveguide. The waveguide is based on the hydromagnetic box model. We develop a novel boundary condition that drives the magnetospheric boundary by pressure perturbations, in order to simulate solar wind dynamic pressure fluctuati…