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Observation of plasma deceleration at a rotational magnetopause discontinuity
Author(s) -
Aggson T. L.,
Maynard N. C.,
Ogilvie K. W.,
Scudder J. D.,
Gambardella P. J.
Publication year - 1984
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/gl011i001p00008
Subject(s) - magnetopause , magnetosheath , physics , magnetohydrodynamic drive , magnetosphere , magnetohydrodynamics , discontinuity (linguistics) , plasma , geophysics , mechanics , computational physics , kinetic energy , rotational energy , classical mechanics , mathematical analysis , mathematics , quantum mechanics
This letter presents a detailed experimental analysis of the electric fields and electron flow velocities at a rotational magnetopause discontinuity. It is shown for this event that the magnetosheath plasma velocity is sharply decelerated on entry into the magnetosphere in very good agreement with a theoretical magnetohydrodynamic fit. This type of event is remarkable because the quantity E · J is negative during the magnetopause crossing. This case represents one of two types of valid solution to the MHD boundary conditions. It differs from previously published examples of reconnective magnetopause geometries in that energy is being transferred locally from kinetic energy into electromagnetic energy at the time of these measurements.