Coupling of Alfven and compressional waves

Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978 · J. Geophys. Res.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JA083iA06p02628· OSTI ID:7050089

Lin, C S; Parks, G K

The article studies the hydromagnetic wave propagation characteristics in a mixture of cold and hot plasma in the presence of an inhomogeneous magnetic field. Electron and ion distribution functions with a temperature anisotropy and a density gradient are used to obtain the dispersion equation by solving the Vlasov equation and Maxwell equations. From the solutions of the dispersion equation we find that the Alfven waves can couple to unstable drift mirror waves under certain conditions. The polarization of the coupled waves is studied for varying parameters of temperature anisotropy and the cold to hot density ratio. From detailed comparison of the theoretical results with the low-frequency wave properties observed in the magnetosphere we propose that the storm-associated magnetic field oscillations with periods of 100-600 s might be caused by the coupling of Alfven waves and the unstable drift mirror waves.

• Research Organization: Space Sciences Division, Geophysics Program, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
• OSTI ID: 7050089
• Journal Information: J. Geophys. Res.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Geophys. Res.; (United States) Vol. 83:A6; ISSN JGREA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
BOLTZMANN-VLASOV EQUATION
COLD PLASMA
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
EQUATIONS
HOT PLASMA
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
ION TEMPERATURE
MAGNETIC STORMS
MAGNETOSPHERE
MAXWELL EQUATIONS
PLASMA
POLARIZATION
WAVE PROPAGATION