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“Aging” of the magnetotail thin current sheets
Author(s) -
Zelenyi L. M.,
Delcourt D. C.,
Malova H. V.,
Sharma A. S.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2001gl013789
Subject(s) - current sheet , current (fluid) , adiabatic process , chaotic , physics , particle (ecology) , ion , classical mechanics , mechanics , magnetic field , quantum mechanics , magnetohydrodynamics , geology , thermodynamics , computer science , oceanography , artificial intelligence
Paper is devoted to the self‐consistent analysis of thin current sheets (TCSs) formation in the presence of nonadiabatic effects. It is shown that nonadiabaticity of particle motion influences significantly the structure of “young” current sheets in which the particles have Speiser orbits. This results into the appearance of ions with large magnetic moments which reduces the current in the center of the sheet. The TCS then deteriorates, which leads to its “aging” due to the unavoidable nonadiabatic jumps of the adiabatic invariants of particle motion. When the resulting quasi‐trapped domain becomes highly populated, the current decays. The characteristic lifetime of TCS due to the chaotic nature of the system is found to be about 10–60 minutes. This effect provides a new evolutionary mechanism which finally leads to the disruption of CS structure, at least in the frames of our 1D model.