| GEOPHYSICS, ASTRONOMY, AND ASTROPHYSICS |
|
|
|
|
Is the Near-Earth Current Sheet Prior to Reconnection Unstable to Tearing Mode? |
| WEI Xin-Hua1, CAO Jin-Bin1,2, ZHOU Guo-Cheng1, FU Hui-Shan1,2,3 |
| 1Key Laboratory of Space Weather, Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 1001902School of Aeronautics, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing 1000493Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 |
|
| Cite this article: |
|
WEI Xin-Hua, CAO Jin-Bin, ZHOU Guo-Cheng et al 2010 Chin. Phys. Lett. 27 029401 |
|
|
|
|
Abstract The tearing mode instability plays a key role in the triggering process of reconnection. The triggering collisionless tearing mode instability has been theoretically and numerically analyzed by many researchers. However, due to the difficulty in obtaining the observational wave number, it is still unknown whether the tearing mode instability can be excited in an actual plasma sheet prior to reconnection onset. Using the data from four Cluster satellites prior to a magnetospheric reconnection event on 13 September 2002, we utilized the wave telescope technique to obtain the wave number which corresponds to the peak of power spectral density. The wavelength is about 18RE and is consistent with previous theoretic and numerical results. After substituting the wave vector and other necessary parameters of the observed current sheet into the triggering condition of tearing mode instability, we find that the near-Earth current sheet prior to reconnection is unstable to tearing mode.
|
| Keywords:
94.30.Cl
94.30.Cp
94.30.Cq
|
|
|
Received: 27 October 2009
Published: 08 February 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
[1] Dungey J W 1961 Phys. Res. Lett. 6 47
[2] Vasyliunas V M 1975 Rev. Geophys. 13 303
[3] Birn J et al 2001 J. Geophys. Res. 106 3715
[4] Deng X H and Matsumoto H 2001 Nature 410 557
[5] Phan T D et al 2001 J. Geophys. Res. 106 15489
[6] Wei X H et al 2007 J. Geophys. Res. 112 A10225
[7] Coppi Bet al 1966 Phys. Rev. Lett. 16 1207
[8] Schindler K 1974 J. Geophys. Res. 79 2803
[9] Galeev A A and Zelenyi L M 1976 Sov. Phys. JETP 43 1113
[10] Lemb\`{ege B and Pellat R 1982 Phys. Fluids 25 1995
[11] Drake J F and Lee Y C 1977 Phys. Fluids 20 1341
[12] Wang X et al 1990 J. Geophys. Res. 95 15047
[13] Coroniti F V 1980 J. Geophys. Res. 85 6719
[14] Pellat R et al 1991 Geophys. Res. Lett. 18 143
[15] Brittnacher M et al 1994 Geophys. Res. Lett. 21 1591
[16] Quest K B et al 1996 J. Geophys. Res. 101 179
[17] Pritchett P L and Coroniti F V 1994 Geophys. Res. Lett. 21 1587
[18] Dreher J et al1996 J. Geophys. Res. 101 27,375
[19] Sitnov M I et al1998 Geophys. Res. Lett. 25 269
[20] Sitnov M I et al 2002 J. Geophys. Res. 107 1256
[21] Sitnov M I et al 2009 J. Geophys. Res. 114 A04202
[22] Runov A et al 2009 Geophys. Res. Lett. 36 L14106
[23] Motschmann U et al 1996 J. Geophys. Res. 101 4961
[24] Glassmeier K-H 2003 Ann. Geophys. 21 1071
[25] Fu H S et al 2009 Chin.Phys.Lett. 26 119402
[26] R\`{eme et al 2001 Ann. Geophys. 19 1303
[27] Balogh et al 2001 Ann. Geophys. 19 1207
[28] Johnstone A D et al 1997 Space Sci. Rev. 79 351
[29] Thompson S M et al 2005 J. Geophys. Res. 110 02212
[30] Sitnov M I and Lui A T Y 1999 J. Geophys. Res. 104 6941 |
|
Viewed |
|
|
|
Full text
|
|
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
|
