Global structures of Alfven-ballooning modes in magnetospheric plasmas

Technical Report · Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10141661· OSTI ID:10141661

Vetoulis, G; Chen, Liu

The authors show that a steep plasma pressure gradient can lead to radially localized Alfven modes, which are damped through coupling to filed line resonances. These have been called drift Alfven balloning modes (DABM) and are the prime candidates to explain Pc4-Pc5 geomagnetic pulsations observed during storms. A strong dependence of the damping rate on the azimuthal wave number m is established, as well as on the equilibrium profile. A minimum azimuthal mode number can be found for the DABM to be radially trapped. The authors find that higher m DABMs are better localized, which is consistent with high-m observations.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 10141661
• Report Number(s): PPPL-2955; ON: DE94009829; TRN: 94:007590
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: Mar 1994
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
PRESSURE GRADIENTS
ALFVEN WAVES
INSTABILITY GROWTH RATES
BALLOONING INSTABILITY
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