HR: 1340h
AN: SM13A-1113    [Abstracts]
TI: Tests and consequences of ballooning in the RCM-E
AU: * Toffoletto, F
EM: toffo@rice.edu
AF: Rice University, Physics and Astronomy Dept, MS 108 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, United States
AU: Wolf, R A
EM: rawolf@rice.edu
AF: Rice University, Physics and Astronomy Dept, MS 108 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, United States
AU: Sazykin, S
EM: sazykin@rice.edu
AF: Rice University, Physics and Astronomy Dept, MS 108 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, United States
AU: Crabtree, C
EM: ccrab@mit.edu
AF: MIT, Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Boston, MA 02139, United States
AU: Horton, W
EM: horton@physics.utexas.edu
AF: UT Austin, Institute for Fusion Studies, Austin, TX 78712, United States
AB: The Rice Convection Model – Equilibrium (RCM-E) combines the drift physics and magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling computational machinery of the RCM with a model of equilibrium magnetic field that computes the magnetic field that is in static force balance with the RCM-computed pressures. RCM-E simulations of a growth phase frequently exhibit growing ripples associated with the highly stretched magnetic-field configurations. We have applied the Fast-MHD stability analysis algorithm [Crabtree et al., 2003] to RCM-E computed configurations with the result that suggests the system is MHD ballooning unstable. If one assumes that in the magnetosphere, the occurrence of ballooning would result in the modification of the specific entropy of the plasma this would result not only in the injection of plasma into the inner magnetosphere, but also the reconfiguration of the system to a more stable state. We will use the RCM-E to model the consequences on the overall stability of the system when a depleted channel is put in the model and the code was then allowed to evolve in a similar fashion similar to that described by Lemon et al [2004].
DE: 2730 Magnetosphere: inner
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2744 Magnetotail
DE: 2760 Plasma convection (2463)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting