HR: 0800h
AN: SM51B-0375    [Abstracts]
TI: Initial Expansion of a Magnetic Bubble
AU: * Winske, D
EM: winske@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS B259, X-1, Los Alamos, NM 87545 United States
AU: Omidi, N
EM: omidi@adelphia.net
AF: SciberNet, Inc., 777 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 108, Solana Beach, CA 92075 United States
AB: The mini-magnetosphere plasma propulsion scheme (plasma sail) involves the inflation of a magnetized plasma bubble attached to a satellite in space that is large enough to deflect the solar wind and consequently achieve velocities on the order of 50 km/s [Winglee et al., JGR, 2000]. Here we present simulations of the initial expansion of the magnetic bubble in a simplified geometry. We consider plasma injected into a stationary magnetized background plasma in the presence of a dipole magnetic field with a 2-D kinetic ion, massless fluid electron (hybrid) electromagnetic code. For small values of the dipole field, the injected ions exclude the ambient magnetic field and plasma to form a diamagnetic cavity. For large magnetic dipoles, the injected ions remain magnetized and produce additional plasma currents that expand the dipole field, leading to a magnetic bubble. A criterion to distinguish between these two regimes is derived. Issues associated with the sensitivity of symmetry of the bubble that is formed to the plasma injection scheme are also discussed.
DE: 2708 Current systems (2409)
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
DE: 2772 Plasma waves and instabilities
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting