HR: 0830h
AN: SM21B-0209    [PDF]
TI: Generation of Field-Aligned Currents Driven by ULF Waves at the Plasmasheet Boundary Layer
AU: * Lee, D
EM: dhlee@khu.ac.kr
AF: Dept of Astronomy and Space Science, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Kyunggi, 449-701 Korea, Republic of
AU: Lysak, R L
EM: bob@aurora.space.umn.edu
AF: School of Physics and Astronomy, Univ of Minnesota, 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 United States
AU: Song, Y
EM: yan@aurora.space.umn.edu
AF: School of Physics and Astronomy, Univ of Minnesota, 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 United States
AB: In the plasma sheet boundary layer, the plasma density and the Alfven speed undergo significant variations in order to satisfy the total pressure balance. The inhomogeneity of the plasma pressure and magnetic pressure becomes significant near the plasma sheet boundary layer. We have developed a new three-dimensional MHD wave model that allows for finite plasma pressure. We present the initial results from this numerical model for MHD wave propagation in hot plasmas. Based on this time-dependent model, we study the excitation of ULF modes in the magnetotail. We examine how both shear and fast modes are affected by the plasmasheet and lobe structure. Our results show that localized field-aligned currents are strongly excited at the boundary between the plasma sheet and its surrounding regions. We also discuss and compare our results with observations.
DE: 2724 Magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers
DE: 2744 Magnetotail
DE: 2748 Magnetotail boundary layers
DE: 2752 MHD waves and instabilities
DE: 7827 Kinetic and MHD theory
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting