HR: 0800h
AN: NG21B-0526    [Abstracts]
TI: Spontaneous Generation of Self-Organized Solitary Wave Structures at the Magnetopause
AU: * Trines, R M
EM: R.M.G.Trines@rl.ac.uk
AF: Rutherford Applleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
AU: Bingham, R
EM: r.bingham@rl.ac.uk
AF: Rutherford Applleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
AU: Dunlop, M W
EM: m.w.dunlop@rl.ac.uk
AF: Rutherford Applleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
AU: Bamford, R A
EM: r.a.bamford@rl.ac.uk
AF: Rutherford Applleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
AU: Vaivads, A
EM: andris@irfu.se
AF: Swedish Institute of Space Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Box 537, Uppsala, SE-751 21, Sweden
AU: Davies, J A
EM: j.a.davies@rl.ac.uk
AF: Rutherford Applleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
AU: Mendonca, J T
EM: titomend@beta.ist.utl.pt
AF: Instituto Superior Tecnico, 1096, Lisboa, Codex, Portugal
AU: Silva, L O
EM: luis.silva@ist.utl.pt
AF: Instituto Superior Tecnico, 1096, Lisboa, Codex, Portugal
AU: Shukla, P
EM: ps@tp4.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
AF: Institut fur Theoretische Physik IV, Ruhr Universitat Bochum, Bochum, D-44780, Germany
AB: Spontaneous formation of solitary wave structures has been observed in the Earth's magnetopause, and is shown to be caused by the break-up of a zonal flow by the action of drift wave turbulence. Here we show matched observations and modeling of coherent, large-scale solitary electrostatic structures, generated during the interaction of short-scale drift wave turbulence and zonal flows at the Earth's magnetopause. An analytical model demonstrating the growth rate of broadband drift mode turbulence driving zonal flows based on the wave kinetic treatment is presented. The observations were made by the Cluster spacecraft and the numerical modeling was performed using the wave-kinetic approach to drift wave-zonal flow interactions. Good agreement between observations and simulations has been found, thus explaining the emergence of the observed solitary structured as well as confirming earlier theoretical predictions of their existence. The connection to zonal flows in Tokamak fusion reactors is also presented showing synergy between the two areas and demonstrating that the magnetopause is a transport barrier.
DE: 2724 Magnetopause and boundary layers
SC: Nonlinear Geophysics [NG]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting