HR: 0800h
AN: SM51A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: A Dynamic Theory of the Breakdown of the Frozen-in Condition and Plasma Energization at the Current Sheet
AU: * Song, Y
EM: yan@fields.space.umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, School of Physics and Astronomy 116 Church Street, S.E. , Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States
AU: Lysak, R L
EM: bob@fields.space.umn.edu
AF: University of Minnesota, School of Physics and Astronomy 116 Church Street, S.E. , Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States
AB: In the last few decades, observations at current sheets have mostly been explained by quasi-steady reconnection model, often in a 2-D laminar current configuration, having a X-line and including the non-ideal terms in the generalized Ohm's law. The most accepted theoretical explanation of the generation of parallel electric field in the past years relies mainly on the generalized Ohm's law, which, in fact, yields only a force balance, not the generation of parallel electric field itself. As a result, previous understanding of the dynamics of current sheets has been limited due to the lack of a dynamical theory for the generation of electric fields and poor consideration of 3D mesoscale Alfvenic dynamical processes occurring at magnetopause and tail current sheets. Based on a recently-developed dynamic theory of the generation of electric fields, here we present a dynamical current sheet model, where the propagation, generation and nonlinear interaction of mesoscale Alfvenic disturbances play a crucial role in breaking down the frozen-in condition locally, radiating shear Alfvén waves, forming local magnetic structures, and causing plasma energization at current layers. Our dynamical model not only explains some observational facts explained by the traditional reconnection model but also gives new and very different interpretations and predictions for aspects of physical processes occurring at current sheets that cannot be provided by previous models, or are not given in previous models.
DE: 2712 Electric fields (2411)
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 7526 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7835)
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7526)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly