HR: 0800h
AN: SM11A-1175    [Abstracts]
TI: Liapunov Stability of Plasmas: An Application to the Earth's Magnetotail at Substorms
AU: Dobias, P
EM: pdobias@space.ualberta.ca
AF: Department of Physics,, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2J1 Canada
AU: * Voronkov, I
EM: igor@phys.ucalgary.ca
AF: Department of Physics and Astronomy,, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4 Canada
AU: Wanliss, J
EM: wanlib01@erau.edu
AF: Physical Sciences Department, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University,, Physical Sciences Department, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL 32114 United States
AU: Samson, J
EM: samson@phys.ualberta.ca
AF: Department of Physics,, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2J1 Canada
AB: Methods of understanding stability of complicated dynamical systems without the need to find a particular solution for the system date back to Riemann, Poincare, and Liapunov. These methods exploit the fact that the equations governing dynamics of many physical systems are Hamiltonian in nature, and have been successfully applied to many types of physical systems. Here, we present the general (nonlinear) stability analysis of the near-Earth magnetotail during late growth phase of substorms just prior to the onset. We use the Grad-Shafranov equilibrium constrained by the CANOPUS photometer data to obtain the configuration of the region of the magnetotail in the near-equatorial region between 5 and 30 earth radii. Then we apply Liapunov stability analysis to find a possible coincidence between the onset and the transition from stable to unstable configurations. Also, we analyze the influence of the topology of the magnetic field on the stability of the system, and we discuss a possible scenario for the onset dynamics.
DE: 7819 Experimental and mathematical techniques
DE: 7827 Kinetic and MHD theory
DE: 7839 Nonlinear phenomena
DE: 7871 Waves and instabilities
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting