Chaotization of the electron motion as the cause of an internal magnetotail instability and substorm onset

Journal Article · Tue Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1987 · J. Geophys. Res.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JA092iA12p13456· OSTI ID:5647669

Buechner, J; Zelenyi, L M

A new mechanism is proposed that is able to explain the sudden disruption of the magnetotail energy storage and the explosive onset of isolated magnetospheric substorms. During the growth phase the magnetotail accumulates additional magnetic flux and evolves in such a way that the special parameter kappa/sub e/ = (B/sub n//B/sub o/)(L/rho/sub eo/)/sup 1/2/ describing the ratio of characteristic frequencies of the electron motion along and across the field reversal region quickly decreases. Here B/sub n/ and B/sub o/ are the components of magnetic field across and along the central plasma sheet, L is the thickness of the field reversal region, and rho/sub eo/ is the Larmor radius of thermal electrons in the field B/sub o/. When kappa/sub e/ reaches a critical value kappa/sub e/chemically bond/sub crit/approx. =1.6, a nonlinear interaction between the degrees of freedom of electron motion becomes strong enough to cause a chaotization of the electron orbits. This effect results in a fast growth of a collisionless tearing mode instability even within the framework of the WKB approximation, i.e., in a wide interval of possible wavelengths 1>kL>B/sub n//B/sub o/. The proposed theory gives the mechanism of the formation of new reconnection region in the near-Earth magnetotail, based exclusively on intrinsic properties of the magnetotail evolution. This reveals the natural relation between the onsets of isolated substorms and an internal large-scale magnetotail instability of the tearing type considered in this paper. copyright American Geophysical Union 1987

• Research Organization: Central Institute for Astrophysics, Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic, Potsdam
• OSTI ID: 5647669
• Journal Information: J. Geophys. Res.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Geophys. Res.; (United States) Vol. 92:A12; ISSN JGREA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
CHERENKOV RADIATION
COLLISIONLESS PLASMA
DISSIPATION FACTOR
DISSOCIATION ENERGY
DISTRIBUTION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY
FLUX DENSITY
INSTABILITY
INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELDS
IONIZATION
IONOSPHERIC STORMS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETOTAIL
PLASMA
PLASMA DISRUPTION
PLASMA INSTABILITY
RADIATIONS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR WIND
TURBULENCE