Mixing of the Interstellar and Solar Plasmas at the Heliospheric Interface
- Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States). Dept. of Space Science; Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States). Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research; University of Alabama in Huntsville
- Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States). Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research
From the ideal MHD perspective, the heliopause is a tangential discontinuity that separates the solar wind plasma from the local interstellar medium plasma. There are physical processes, however, that make the heliopause permeable. They can be subdivided into kinetic and MHD categories. Kinetic processes occur on small length and time scales, and cannot be resolved with MHD equations. On the other hand, MHD instabilities of the heliopause have much larger scales and can be easily observed by spacecraft. The heliopause may also be a subject of magnetic reconnection. In this paper, we discuss mechanisms of plasma mixing at the heliopause in the context of Voyager 1 observations. Numerical results are obtained with a Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS), which is a package of numerical codes capable of performing adaptive mesh refinement simulations of complex plasma flows in the presence of discontinuities and charge exchange between ions and neutral atoms. The flow of the ionized component is described with the ideal MHD equations, while the transport of atoms is governed either by the Boltzmann equation or multiple Euler gas dynamics equations. The code can also treat nonthermal ions and turbulence produced by them.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) (SC-24)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0008334;
- OSTI ID:
- 1326080
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Journal Name: Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series Vol. 498; ISSN 1050-3390
- Publisher:
- Astronomical Society of the PacificCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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