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Mechanism for the formation of plasmoids and kink waves in the heliospheric current sheet

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6710536
; ; ;
Satellite observations of the heliospheric current sheet indicate that the plasma flow velocity is low at the center of the current sheet and high on the two sides of current sheet. In this paper, we investigate the growth rates and eigenmodes of the sausage, kink, and tearing instabilities in the heliospheric current sheet with the observed sheared flow. These instabilities may lead to the formation of the plasmoids and kink waves in the solar wind. The results show that both the sausage and kink modes can be excited in the heliospheric current sheet with a growth time about 0.05-5 day. Therefore, these modes can grow during the transit of the solar wind from the Sun to the Earth. The sausage mode grows faster than the kink mode for beta at infinity < 1.5, while the streaming kink instability has a higher growth rate for beta at infinity > 1.5. Here beta at infinity is the ratio between the plasma and magnetic pressures away from the current layer. If a finite resistivity is considered, the streaming sausage mode evolves into the streaming tearing mode with the formation of magnetic islands. We suggest that some of the magnetic clouds and plasmoids observed in the solar wind may be associated with the streaming sausage instability. Furthermore, it is found that a large-scale kink wave may develop in the region with a radial distance greater than 0.5-1.5 AU.
Research Organization:
Alaska Univ., College, AK (USA)
OSTI ID:
6710536
Report Number(s):
AD-A-221188/6/XAB; SCIENTIFIC--1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

640104* -- Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology-- Solar Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATMOSPHERES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
HELIOSPHERE
INSTABILITY
INSTABILITY GROWTH RATES
INTERPLANETARY SPACE
KINK INSTABILITY
LAYERS
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC ISLANDS
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMA
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA MACROINSTABILITIES
PLASMA SHEET
PLASMA WAVES
PLASMOIDS
SATELLITES
SAUSAGE INSTABILITY
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
SOLAR WIND
SPACE
STABILITY
STARS
SUN
TEARING INSTABILITY
TENSORS
VECTORS