Physical Processes of Substorm Onset and Current Disruption Observed by AMPTE/CCE
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Uniersity, Laurel, MD (United States)
A new scenario of AMPTE/CCE observation of substorm onset and current disruption and the corresponding physical processes is presented. Toward the end of the late growth phase, plasma beta increases to greater than or equal to 50 and a low-frequency instability with a wave period of 50-75 seconds is excited and grows exponentially to a large amplitude at the onset of current disruption. At the current disruption onset, higher-frequency instabilities are excited so that the plasma and electromagnetic field form a turbulent state. Plasma transport and heating take place to reduce plasma beta and modify the ambient plasma pressure and velocity profiles so that the ambient magnetic field recovers from a tail-like geometry to a more dipole- like geometry. To understand the excitation of the low-frequency global instability, a new theory of kinetic ballooning instability (KBI) is proposed to explain the high critical beta threshold (greater than or equal to 50) of the low-frequency global instability observed by the AMPTE/CCE. The stabilization kinetic effects of trapped electron and finite ion Larmor radii give rise to a large parallel electric field and hence a parallel current that greatly enhances the stabilizing effect of field line tension to the ballooning mode. As a result, the high critical beta threshold for excitation of KBI is greatly increased over the ideal MHD ballooning instability threshold by greater than O(10 squared). The wave-ion magnetic drift resonance effect typically reduces the high critical beta threshold by up to 20% and produces a perturbed resonant ion velocity distribution with a duskward velocity roughly equal to the average ion magnetic drift velocity as the KBI grows to a large amplitude. Higher-frequency instabilities, such as the cross-field current instability (CCI), can be excited by the additional velocity space free energy associated with the positive slope in the perturbed resonant ion velocity distribution.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH03073
- OSTI ID:
- 310022
- Report Number(s):
- PPPL-CFP-3927; CONF-9803142-; ON: DE98057591; CNN: Grant ATM-9523331; Grant ATM-9622080
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 4. international conference on substorms, Lake Hamana (Japan), 9-13 Mar 1998; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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