MHD instability with dawn-dusk symmetry in near-Earth plasma sheet during substorm growth phase*

Recent global MHD simulations of March 23, 2007 THEMIS substorm event using the OpenGGCM code have confirmed the presence of both high-ky ballooning modes and zero-ky instabilities in the near-Earth plasma sheet during the substorm growth phase [Raeder et al 2010]. These results are consistent with findings from earlier analyses [Siscoe et al 2009; Zhu et al 2009]. Here ky is the azimuthal wavenumber in the dawn-dusk direction. However, the nature and role of the ky=0 mode, as well as its interaction with the high ky ballooning modes, in the process leading to the expansion onset remain unclear. In this work, we focus on the stability properties of the ky=0 mode. A re-evaluation of the tail-tearing mode criterion by Sitnov and Schindler (2009) suggested that the dipolarization front (DF) structure identified in THEMIS observations [Runov et al 2009] could be tearing-unstable. Linear calculations using the NIMROD code have found a growing tearing mode in a generalized Harris sheet with a DF-like structure, which is also a unique feature closely correlated with the appearance of zero-ky mode in the OpenGGCM simulation. The ideal-MHD energy principle analysis is used to address the question whether the ky=0 mode is an ideal or resistive MHD instability. We further compare the linear and nonlinear tail-tearing mode in NIMROD simulations with the ky=0 mode from OpenGGCM simulations. *Supported by NSF Grants AGS-0902360 and PHY-0821899. References: Raeder, J., P. Zhu, Y.-S. Ge, and G. Siscoe (2010), Tail force imbalance and ballooning instability preceding substorm onset, submitted to J. Geophys. Res. Runov, A., et al. (2009), Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L14106. Siscoe, G.L., M.M. Kuznetsova, and J. Raeder (2009), Ann. Geophys., 27, 3141. Sitnov, M.I. and K. Schindler (2010), Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L08102. Zhu, P., J. Raeder, K. Germaschewski, and C.C. Hegna (2009), Ann. Geophys., 27, 1129.