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Jets Downstream of Collisionless Shocks

Kajdič, Primož; Blanco-Cano, Xóchitl; Karlsson, Tomas +10 more

The magnetosheath flow may take the form of large amplitude, yet spatially localized, transient increases in dynamic pressure, known as "magnetosheath jets" or "plasmoids" among other denominations. Here, we describe the present state of knowledge with respect to such jets, which are a very common phenomenon downstream of the quasi-parallel bow sh…

Synthetic Empirical Chorus Wave Model From Combined Van Allen Probes and Cluster Statistics

Krasnoselskikh, V.; Hospodarsky, G.; Artemyev, A. V. +4 more

Chorus waves are among the most important natural electromagnetic emissions in the magnetosphere as regards to their potential effects on electron dynamics. They can efficiently accelerate or precipitate electrons trapped in the outer radiation belt, producing either fast increases of relativistic particle fluxes or auroras at high latitudes. Accu…

Partial Variance of Increments Method in Solar Wind Observations and Plasma Simulations

Perri, S.; Matthaeus, W. H.; Wan, M. +4 more

The method called "PVI" (Partial Variance of Increments) has been increasingly used in analysis of spacecraft and numerical simulation data since its inception in 2008. The purpose of the method is to study the kinematics and formation of coherent structures in space plasmas, a topic that has gained considerable attention, leading the development …

Current Systems in the Earth's Magnetosphere

Dubyagin, S.; Liemohn, M. W.; Ganushkina, N. Yu.

Compressible Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence in the Earth's Magnetosheath: Estimation of the Energy Cascade Rate Using in situ Spacecraft Data

Sahraoui, F.; Huang, S. Y.; Hadid, L. Z. +1 more

The first estimation of the energy cascade rate |ɛ_C| of magnetosheath turbulence is obtained using the Cluster and THEMIS spacecraft data and an exact law of compressible isothermal magnetohydrodynamics turbulence. The mean value of |ɛ_C| is found to be close to 10^-13 J m^-3 s^-1 , at least 2 ord…

Global Model of Plasmaspheric Hiss From Multiple Satellite Observations

Meredith, Nigel P.; Horne, Richard B.; Li, Wen +4 more

We present a global model of plasmaspheric hiss, using data from eight satellites, extending the coverage and improving the statistics of existing models. We use geomagnetic activity dependent templates to separate plasmaspheric hiss from chorus. In the region 22-14 magnetic local time (MLT) the boundary between plasmaspheric hiss and chorus moves…

Electron Power-Law Spectra in Solar and Space Plasmas

Retinò, A.; Khotyaintsev, Y. V.; Eriksson, E. +10 more

Particles are accelerated to very high, non-thermal energies in solar and space plasma environments. While energy spectra of accelerated electrons often exhibit a power law, it remains unclear how electrons are accelerated to high energies and what processes determine the power-law index δ . Here, we review previous observations of the power-law i…

Fully Kinetic Simulation of 3D Kinetic Alfvén Turbulence

Grošelj, Daniel; Mallet, Alfred; Jenko, Frank +1 more

We present results from a three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of plasma turbulence, resembling the plasma conditions found at kinetic scales of the solar wind. The spectral properties of the turbulence in the subion range are consistent with theoretical expectations for kinetic Alfvén waves. Furthermore, we calculate the local anisotropy…

Electron Acceleration by Dipolarization Fronts and Magnetic Reconnection: A Quantitative Comparison

Xu, Y.; Fu, H. S.; Liu, C. M. +1 more

Suprathermal electrons with energy from tens to hundreds of keV are frequently observed in the Earth's magnetotail. The generation of such electrons is typically attributed to magnetic reconnection, dipolarization fronts (DFs), or flux transport. However, which of these contributes more to this generation remains unclear. In this study, we quantit…

Dual Phase-space Cascades in 3D Hybrid-Vlasov-Maxwell Turbulence

Califano, F.; Cerri, S. S.; Kunz, M. W.

To explain energy dissipation via turbulence in collisionless, magnetized plasmas, the existence of a dual real- and velocity-space cascade of ion-entropy fluctuations below the ion gyroradius has been proposed. Such a dual cascade, predicted by the gyrokinetic theory, has previously been observed in gyrokinetic simulations of two-dimensional, ele…