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Ballooning-mirror instability and internally driven Pc 4--5 wave events

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/142542· OSTI ID:142542
A kinetic-MHD field-aligned eigenmode stability analysis of low frequency ballooning-mirror instabilities has been performed for anisotropic pressure plasma sin the magnetosphere. The ballooning mode is mainly a transverse wave driven unstable by pressure gradient in the bad curvature region. The mirror mode with a dominant compressional magnetic field perturbation is excited when the product of plasma beta and pressure anisotropy (P{sub {perpendicular}}/P{sub {parallel}} > 1) is large. From the AMPTE/CCE particle and magnetic field data observed during Pc 4--5 wave events the authors compute the ballooning-mirror instability parameters and perform a correlation study with the theoretical instability threshold. They find that compressional Pc 5 waves approximately satisfy the ballooning-mirror instability condition, and transverse Pc 4--5 waves are probably related to resonant ballooning instabilities with small pressure anisotropy.
Research Organization:
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Plasma Physics Lab.
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76CH03073
OSTI ID:
142542
Report Number(s):
PPPL--2974; ON: DE94008838
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English