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Explosive tearing mode reconnection in the magnetospheric tail
Author(s) -
Galeev A. A.,
Coroniti F. V.,
AshourAbdalla M.
Publication year - 1978
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/gl005i008p00707
Subject(s) - tearing , explosive material , physics , instability , magnetic reconnection , amplitude , nonlinear system , plasma , mechanics , current sheet , plasma sheet , wavelength , phase (matter) , magnetohydrodynamics , magnetosphere , optics , nuclear physics , chemistry , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
A speculative model for the nonlinear phase of the collisionless tearing instability is developed for the case of a single long wavelength tearing mode. Using an energy principle formalism, we find that the nonlinear growth rate is linearly proportional to the mode amplitude. Hence in the nonlinear phase, the tearing mode grows explosively in time, and saturates when the width of the magnetic islands become comparable to the thickness of the current sheet. For typical plasma sheet parameters, the explosive phase lasts 5 ‐ 10 minutes, and develops cross‐tail emf's of several 100 KV.