A nonlocal wave-wave interaction among Alfven waves in an intermediate-{beta} plasma

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3568840· OSTI ID:21537310

Zhao, J S ^[1]; Wu, D J ^[1]; Lu, J Y ^[2]

---

1. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
2. National Center for Space Weather, China Meteorology Administration, Beijing 100081 (China)

A nonlocal coupling mechanism to directly transfer the energy from large-scale magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Alfven waves to small-scale kinetic Alfven waves is presented. It is shown that the interaction between a MHD Alfven wave and a reversely propagating kinetic Alfven wave can generate another kinetic Alfven wave, and this interaction exists in the plasmas where the thermal to magnetic pressure ratio is larger than the electron to ion mass ratio. The proposed nonlocal interaction may have a potential application to account for the observed electron scale kinetic Alfven waves in the solar wind and solar corona plasmas.

• OSTI ID: 21537310
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 18; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALFVEN WAVES
ATMOSPHERES
COUPLING
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
INTERACTIONS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MECHANICS
PLASMA
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
SOLAR CORONA
SOLAR WIND
STELLAR ACTIVITY
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES
STELLAR CORONAE
STELLAR WINDS