Numerical simulation of solar wind and magnetospheric phenomena.
Abstract
The nature of the nonlinear evolution of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the presence of sheared magnetic fields was investigated via numerical simulation. Models of the magnetosheath-magnetopause boundary in earth's tail and stream interaction regions in the inner heliosphere were studied. The development of the instability is influenced strongly by the orientation and magnitude of the magnetic field. Large vortical structures that resemble observations in the earth's tail can form while other cases generate turbulent spectra that provide insight into the generation of Alfven turbulence in the solar wind.
- Publication:
-
Small Scale Plasma Processes in the Solar Chromosphere/Corona, Interplanetary Medium and Planetary Magnetospheres
- Pub Date:
- August 1987
- Bibcode:
- 1987ESASP.275..115G
- Keywords:
-
- Earth Magnetosphere;
- Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability;
- Solar Wind;
- Computerized Simulation;
- Geomagnetic Tail;
- Heliosphere;
- Magnetic Field Configurations;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Magnetosheath;
- Plasma Turbulence;
- Space Sciences (General);
- Earth Magnetosphere:Instabilities;
- Earth Magnetosphere:Solar Wind;
- Solar Wind:Earth Magnetosphere