The Structure of Martian Magnetosphere at the Dayside Terminator Region as Observed on MAVEN Spacecraft

We analyzed 44 passes of the MAVEN spacecraft through the magnetosphere, arranged by the angle between electric field vector and the projection of spacecraft position radius vector in the YZ plane in MSE coordinate system (${\theta}$ E ). All passes were divided into 3 angular sectors near 0{\deg}, 90{\deg} and 180{\deg} ${\theta}$ E angles in order to estimate the role of IMF direction in plasma and magnetic properties of dayside Martian magnetosphere. The time interval chosen was from January 17 through February 4, 2016 when MAVEN was crossing the dayside magnetosphere at SZA ~ 70{\deg}. Magnetosphere as the region with prevailing energetic planetary ions is always found between the magnetosheath and the ionosphere. 3 angular sectors of dayside interaction region in MSE coordinate system with different orientation of the solar wind electric field vector E = -1/c V x B showed that for each sector one can find specific profiles of the magnetosheath, the magnetic barrier and the magnetosphere. Plume ions originate in the northern MSE sector where motion electric field is directed from the planet. This electric field ejects magnetospheric ions leading to dilution of magnetospheric heavy ions population, and this effect is seen in some magnetospheric profiles. Magnetic barrier forms in front of the magnetosphere, and relative magnetic field magnitudes in these two domains vary. The average height of the boundary with ionosphere is ~530 km and the average height of the magnetopause is ~730 km. We discuss the implications of the observed magnetosphere structure to the planetary ions loss mechanism.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figure

Double peak structure and diamagnetic wings of the magnetotail current sheet

International audienceRecent Cluster observations in the magnetotail at about 20 Earth radii downtail have unambiguously shown that sometimes the current sheet is bifurcated, i.e. it is divided in two layers. We report numerical simulations of the ion dynamics in a quasi-neutral sheet in the presence of magnetic turbulence, which is often observed in the magnetotail, and for various anisotropies of the ion distribution function. Ions are injected at the boundary of the simulation box with a velocity distribution corresponding to a shifted Maxwellian. The simulation parameters, are adjusted to be similar to those of Cluster observations. We find that even for moderate fluctuation levels, the computed current density profile develops a double peak, in agreement with the observations. By varying the anisotropy of the injected distribution function, we are able to reproduce, for weak anisotropy, the magnetic field overshoots which are sometimes observed prior to magnetotail traversals. Therefore, we suggest an ion current profile with a double peak due to magnetic turbulence, and with possible diamagnetic current wings, present in the case of weak anisotropy of the ion distribution function

Magnetic turbulence and particle dynamics in the Earth's magnetotail

International audienceThe influence of magnetic turbulence in the near-Earth magnetotail on ion motion is investigated by numerical simulation. The magnetotail current sheet is modelled as a magnetic field reversal with a normal magnetic field com-ponent Bn , plus a three-dimensional spectrum of magnetic fluctuations dB which represents the observed magnetic turbulence. The dawn-dusk electric field Ey is also considered. A test particle simulation is performed using different values of Bn and of the fluctuation level dB/B0. We show that when the magnetic fluctuations are taken into account, the particle dynamics is deeply affected, giving rise to an increase in the cross tail transport, ion heating, and current sheet thickness. For strong enough turbulence, the current splits in two layers, in agreement with recent Cluster observations

Quasiadiabatic description of nonlinear particle dynamics in typical magnetotail configurations

International audienceIn the present paper we discuss the motion of charged particles in three different regions of the Earth magnetotail: in the region with magnetic field reversal and in the vicinities of neutral line of X- and O-types. The presence of small parameters (ratio of characteristic length scales in and perpendicular to the equatorial plane and the smallness of the electric field) allows us to introduce a hierarchy of motions and use methods of perturbation theory. We propose a parameter that plays the role of a measure of mixing in the system

Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Dissipation in Relativistic Current Sheet of Pair Plasmas

We study linear and nonlinear development of relativistic and ultrarelativistic current sheets of pair plasmas with antiparallel magnetic fields. Two types of two-dimensional problems are investigated by particle-in-cell simulations. First, we present the development of relativistic magnetic reconnection, whose outflow speed is an order of the light speed c. It is demonstrated that particles are strongly accelerated in and around the reconnection region, and that most of magnetic energy is converted into "nonthermal" part of plasma kinetic energy. Second, we present another two-dimensional problem of a current sheet in a cross-field plane. In this case, the relativistic drift kink instability (RDKI) occurs. Particle acceleration also takes place, but the RDKI fast dissipates the magnetic energy into plasma heat. We discuss the mechanism of particle acceleration and the theory of the RDKI in detail. It is important that properties of these two processes are similar in the relativistic regime of T > mc^2, as long as we consider the kinetics. Comparison of the two processes indicates that magnetic dissipation by the RDKI is more favorable process in the relativistic current sheet. Therefore the striped pulsar wind scenario should be reconsidered by the RDKI.Comment: To appear in ApJ vol. 670; 60 pages, 27 figures; References and typos are fixe

Model of strong stationary vortex turbulence in space plasmas

Abstract. This paper investigates the macroscopic consequences of nonlinear solitary vortex structures in magnetized space plasmas by developing theoretical model of plasma turbulence. Strongly localized vortex patterns contain trapped particles and, propagating in a medium, excite substantial density fluctuations and thus, intensify the energy, heat and mass transport processes, i.e., such vortices can form strong vortex turbulence. Turbulence is represented as an ensemble of strongly localized (and therefore weakly interacting) vortices. Vortices with various amplitudes are randomly distributed in space (due to collisions). For their description, a statistical approach is applied. It is supposed that a stationary turbulent state is formed by balancing competing effects: spontaneous development of vortices due to nonlinear twisting of the perturbations' fronts, cascading of perturbations into short scales (direct spectral cascade) and collisional or collisionless damping of the perturbations in the short-wave domain. In the inertial range, direct spectral cascade occurs through merging structures via collisions. It is shown that in the magneto-active plasmas, strong turbulence is generally anisotropic Turbulent modes mainly develop in the direction perpendicular to the local magnetic field. It is found that it is the compressibility of the local medium which primarily determines the character of the turbulent spectra: the strong vortex turbulence forms a power spectrum in wave number space. For example, a new spectrum of turbulent fluctuations in k−8/3 is derived which agrees with available experimental data. Within the framework of the developed model particle diffusion processes are also investigated. It is found that the interaction of structures with each other and particles causes anomalous diffusion in the medium. The effective coefficient of diffusion has a square root dependence on the stationary level of noise

The role of compressibility in solar wind plasma turbulence

Incompressible Magnetohydrodynamics is often assumed to describe solar wind turbulence. We use extended self similarity to reveal scaling in structure functions of density fluctuations in the solar wind. Obtained scaling is then compared with that found in the inertial range of quantities identified as passive scalars in other turbulent systems. We find that these are not coincident. This implies that either solar wind turbulence is compressible, or that straightforward comparison of structure functions does not adequately capture its inertial range properties.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure

The mosaic structure of plasma bulk flows in the Earth's magnetotail

Moments of plasma distributions observed in the magnetotail vary with different time scales. In this paper we attempt to explain the observed variability on intermediate timescales of approximately 10-20 min that result from the simultaneous energization and spatial structuring of solar wind plasma in the distant magnetotail. These processes stimulate the formation of a system of spatially disjointed. highly accelerated filaments (beamlets) in the tail. We use the results from large-scale kinetic modeling of magnetotail formation from a plasma mantle source to calculate moments of ion distribution functions throughout the tail. Statistical restrictions related to the limited number of particles in our system naturally reduce the spatial resolution of our results, but we show that our model is valid on intermediate spatial scales Delta(x) x Delta(z) equal to approximately 1 R(sub E) x 1000 km. For these spatial scales the resulting pattern, which resembles a mosaic, appears to be quite variable. The complexity of the pattern is related to the spatial interference between beamlets accelerated at various locations within the distant tail which mirror in the strong near-Earth magnetic field. Global motion of the magnetotail results in the displacement of spacecraft with respect to this mosaic pattern and can produce variations in all of the moments (especially the x-component of the bulk velocity) on intermediate timescales. The results obtained enable us to view the magnetotail plasma as consisting of two different populations: a tailward-Earthward system of highly accelerated beamlets interfering with each other, and an energized quasithermal population which gradually builds as the Earth is approached. In the near-Earth tail, these populations merge into a hot quasi-isotropic ion population typical of the near-Earth plasma sheet. The transformation of plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) beam energy into central plasma sheet (CPS) quasi-thermal energy occurs in the absence of collisions or noise. This paper also clarifies the relationship between the global scale where an MHD description might be appropriate and the lower intermediate scales where MHD fails and large-scale kinetic theory should be used

Acceleration and transport of ions in turbulent current sheets: formation of non-maxwelian energy distribution

The paper is devoted to particle acceleration in turbulent current sheet (CS). Our results show that the mechanism of CS particle interaction with electromagnetic turbulence can explain the formation of power law energy distributions. We study the ratio between adiabatic acceleration of particles in electric field in the presence of stationary turbulence and acceleration due to electric field in the case of dynamic turbulence. The correlation between average energy gained by particles and average particle residence time in the vicinity of the neutral sheet is discussed. It is also demonstrated that particle velocity distributions formed by particle-turbulence interaction are similar in essence to the ones observed near the far reconnection region in the Earth's magnetotail

Dust-driven Dynamos in Accretion Disks

Magnetically driven astrophysical jets are related to accretion and involve toroidal magnetic field pressure inflating poloidal magnetic field flux surfaces. Examination of particle motion in combined gravitational and magnetic fields shows that these astrophysical jet toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields can be powered by the gravitational energy liberated by accreting dust grains that have become positively charged by emitting photo-electrons. Because a dust grain experiences magnetic forces after becoming charged, but not before, charging can cause irreversible trapping of the grain so dust accretion is a consequence of charging. Furthermore, charging causes canonical angular momentum to replace mechanical angular momentum as the relevant constant of the motion. The resulting effective potential has three distinct classes of accreting particles distinguished by canonical angular momentum, namely (i) "cyclotron-orbit", (ii) "Speiser-orbit", and (iii) "zero canonical angular momentum" particles. Electrons and ions are of class (i) but depending on mass and initial orbit inclination, dust grains can be of any class. Light-weight dust grains develop class (i) orbits such that the grains are confined to nested poloidal flux surfaces, whereas grains with a critical weight such that they experience comparable gravitational and magnetic forces can develop class (ii) or class (iii) orbits, respectively producing poloidal and toroidal field dynamos.Comment: 70 pages, 16 figure