Representations of currents and magnetic fields in anisotropic magnetohydrostatic plasma. 2. General theory and examples

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91JA01825· OSTI ID:5813052

Heinemann, M ^[1]; Pontius, Jr, D H ^[2]

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1. Air Force Geophysics Lab., Hanscom AFB, MA (United States)
2. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)

The authors develop a general treatment of field-aligned currents in quasi-static adiabatic plasma. The formalism is an extension of an earlier analysis (Heinemann, 1990) to include electric and gravitational fields. The assumption that the particle motions are adiabatic along the magnetic field leads to an expression for the total current density that is a generalization of expressions given by Grad (1964) and Vasyliunas (1970). The current density is a vector function of the gradients of the field line constants characterizing the plasma and the gradients of field line integrals of the partial derivations of the parallel pressure with respect to the constants. The use of the expression as the current source in Ampere's law leads to an equation governing the equilibrium of the system of plasma and magnetic field. Examples based on bi-Maxwellian distribution functions suggest that the effects of thermal anisotropy can be about as large as the currents due to isotropic plasma and that the effects of parallel electric field are of the same order of magnitude.

• OSTI ID: 5813052
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) Vol. 96:A10; ISSN JGREA; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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661320* -- Auroral
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& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ADIABATIC PROCESSES
AURORAL ZONES
CURRENT DENSITY
CURRENTS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRON DRIFT
GEOMAGNETIC FIELD
GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS
INTERACTIONS
ION DRIFT
IONOSPHERE
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MOTION
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLASMA