Thermal catastrophe in the plasma sheet boundary layer

Journal Article · Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1986 · Geophys. Res. Lett.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/GL013i013p01380· OSTI ID:6925789

Smith, R A; Goertz, C K; Grossmann, W

This letter presents a first step towards a substorm model including particle heating and transport in the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL). The heating mechanism discussed is resonant absorption of Alfven waves. For some assumed MHD perturbation incident from the tail lobes onto the plasma sheet, the local heating rate in the PSBL has the form of a resonance function of the one-fluid plasma temperature. Balancing the local heating by convective transport of the heated plasma toward the central plasma sheet, and ''equation of state'' is found for the steady-state PSBL whose solution has the form of a mathematical catastrophe: at a critical value of a parameter containing the incident power flux, the local density, and the convection velocity, the equilibrium temperature jumps discontinuously. Associating this temperature increase with the abrupt onset of the substorm expansion phase, the catastrophe model indicates at least three ways in which the onset may be triggered. Several other consequences related to substorm dynamics are suggested by the simple catastrophe model.

• Research Organization: Plasma Physics Division, Science Applications International Corporation, McLean, Virginia 22102
• OSTI ID: 6925789
• Journal Information: Geophys. Res. Lett.; (United States), Vol. 13:13
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
PLASMA SHEET
BOUNDARY LAYERS
THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM
ALFVEN WAVES
CONVECTION
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
EQUATIONS OF STATE
HEATING
MAGNETIC STORMS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PARTICLES
PLASMA DENSITY
PLASMA DRIFT
RESONANCE ABSORPTION
VELOCITY
ABSORPTION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ENERGY TRANSFER
EQUATIONS
EQUILIBRIUM
FLUID MECHANICS
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRODYNAMICS
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
LAYERS
MASS TRANSFER
MECHANICS
640201* - Atmospheric Physics- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena