GEM: Mode Conversion and Kinetic Alfven Waves at the Magnetopause and Their Effects in the Magnetosphere

Auburn University, Auburn AL

Investigators

Abstract

The transport of mass and momentum into the magnetosphere from the solar wind remains an important but incompletely understood problem. This proposal will study wave-induced particle diffusive processes as a transport mechanism at the dayside magnetopause. In particular the team will investigate the processes involved in the conversion of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) fast mode waves to kinetic Alfven waves (KAWs). The conversion to KAWs may be an effective mechanism for transport. The processes involved here may be very important in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas as well as at the magnetopause. This research has an important element of basic plasma physics research. The approach will be to use hybrid simulations (kinetic ions and fluid electrons in self-consistent electromagnetic fields) to investigate mode conversion in a local boundary layer. The team will investigate 1) the 3-D nonlinear physics of mode conversion, 2) the physics of mode conversion due to self-consistently generated foreshock compressional waves, 3) the observed signatures of mode conversion and the dependence of mode conversion on interplanetary magnetic field ( IMF) and solar wind conditions, 4) the differences between KAWs due to mode conversion and those due to reconnection and 5) the impact of KAWs on the ionosphere through Poynting fluxes and field aligned currents. Comparison will be made between the simulation results and THEMIS observations in the magnetosphere and DMSP observations in the ionosphere. The research will support a graduate student.