Paper#: 10
Poster #:
Session Name: Workshop 4A: Tail Instabilities
Room: 200ABC
Day: Tuesday
Time: 1:55-2:15 p.m.
Abstract Title: Kinetic Model of Fast Current Sheet Evolution in the Magnetotail during a Substorm
PresentSurname: Kropotkin, A.P.
All Authors: V.I. Domrin, A.P. Kropotkin
Abstract : A typical feature of substorm disturbances is an intense current sheet (CS) thinning. Before the substorm activation (onset) the process is quasi-static but during the activation it should become much faster. Presumably, it is then induced by a fast, explosion-like process of current filamentation (disruption) that occurs in a more distant portion of the magnetotail. We propose that the process eventually results in formation of a specific structure, namely an anisotropic forced kinetic CS (FKCS), and in this structure transformation takes place of the magnetic energy stored in the magnetotail into the energy of ions accelerated inside such a CS. This structure provides merging of magnetic field lines and thus facilitates the global effect of magnetic reconnection. A full theory of such steady-state FKCS was recently constructed. Now we analyze the process of its formation. To this end we have created a special macroparticle code. By means of that code, it has become possible (1) to see and analyze the process of preliminary thinning of the initial CS under the action of a pair of plasma flows transported to CS from both sides by initial MHD disturbances; (2) to demonstrate the process of FKCS generation itself, along with its accompanying structures.