Magnetospheric Current Sheets and Boundary Layers

这个正在进行的研究项目关注的是发生在地球磁层薄电流片和等离子体边界层中的一些物理过程和结构，特别强调磁层顶。这个电流片形成了磁层的外边界，并将其与快速流动的太阳风分开。拟议的研究主要集中在三个方面。第一个任务是开发和测试单航天器数据的数据分析方法，这些数据分析方法可用于检查磁层顶本身的二维或三维结构以及磁层顶凸起或变形的几何形状，这是由穿过电流层的磁通量连接（所谓的fte）或太阳风中的动压脉冲引起的。这部分研究中使用的数据是由AMPTE/IRM航天器获得的。第二个领域涉及一维电流片的解析和数值模型的发展，表示所谓的中间冲击，这是耗散的和旋转不连续的，这是非耗散的。这两种类型的磁性和等离子体结构都被提出来代表磁场重联期间的磁层顶。研究的第三个领域是重联过程本身以及它可能在太阳下磁层顶附近区域开始和发展的方式。分析理论，以及数值模拟方法将被采用。

This ongoing research program is concerned with some of the physical processes and structures that occur in thin electrical current sheets and plasma boundary layers in the Earth's magnetosphere, with special emphasis on the magnetopause. This current sheet forms the outer boundary of the magnetosphere and separates it from the rapidly streaming solar wind. The proposed research is centered in three areas. The first of these is concerned with the development and testing of data-analysis methods for single-spacecraft data that can be used to examine the two-dimensional or three-dimensional structure of the magnetopause itself as well as the geometry of bulges, or deformations of the magnetopause, caused by magnetic flux connection across the current layer (so-called FTEs) or by dynamic-pressure pulses in the solar wind. The data to be used in this part of the study were obtained by the AMPTE/IRM spacecraft. The second area concerns the development of analytic and numerical models of one-dimensional current sheets representing so-called intermediate shocks which are dissipative and rotational discontinuities, which are nondissipative. Both of these types of magnetic and plasma structures have been proposed to represent the magnetopause during periods of magnetic field reconnection. The third area of study is the reconnection process itself and the manner in which it may be initiated and grow in the region near the subsolar magnetopause. Analytical theory, as well as numerical simulation methods will be employed.