Ion Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations

Over three decades of in-situ observations illustrate that the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability driven by the sheared flow between the magnetosheath and magnetospheric plasma often occurs on the magnetopause of Earth and other planets under various interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. It...

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Autores principales:	Xuanye Ma, Peter Delamere, Katariina Nykyri, Brandon Burkholder, Stefan Eriksson, Yu-Lun Liou
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	Kelvin-Helmholtz instability test particle simulation ion acceleration magnetopause MHD simulation Astronomy QB1-991 Geophysics. Cosmic physics QC801-809
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/54798c8ca6f943e3b92ef29fbbe5aa4e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:54798c8ca6f943e3b92ef29fbbe5aa4e2021-11-17T06:20:14ZIon Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations2296-987X10.3389/fspas.2021.758442https://doaj.org/article/54798c8ca6f943e3b92ef29fbbe5aa4e2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspas.2021.758442/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2296-987XOver three decades of in-situ observations illustrate that the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability driven by the sheared flow between the magnetosheath and magnetospheric plasma often occurs on the magnetopause of Earth and other planets under various interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. It has been well demonstrated that the KH instability plays an important role for energy, momentum, and mass transport during the solar-wind-magnetosphere coupling process. Particularly, the KH instability is an important mechanism to trigger secondary small scale (i.e., often kinetic-scale) physical processes, such as magnetic reconnection, kinetic Alfvén waves, ion-acoustic waves, and turbulence, providing the bridge for the coupling of cross scale physical processes. From the simulation perspective, to fully investigate the role of the KH instability on the cross-scale process requires a numerical modeling that can describe the physical scales from a few Earth radii to a few ion (even electron) inertial lengths in three dimensions, which is often computationally expensive. Thus, different simulation methods are required to explore physical processes on different length scales, and cross validate the physical processes which occur on the overlapping length scales. Test particle simulation provides such a bridge to connect the MHD scale to the kinetic scale. This study applies different test particle approaches and cross validates the different results against one another to investigate the behavior of different ion species (i.e., H+ and O+), which include particle distributions, mixing and heating. It shows that the ion transport rate is about 1025 particles/s, and mixing diffusion coefficient is about 1010 m2 s−1 regardless of the ion species. Magnetic field lines change their topology via the magnetic reconnection process driven by the three-dimensional KH instability, connecting two flux tubes with different temperature, which eventually causes anisotropic temperature in the newly reconnected flux.Xuanye MaPeter DelamereKatariina NykyriBrandon BurkholderStefan ErikssonYu-Lun LiouFrontiers Media S.A.articleKelvin-Helmholtz instabilitytest particle simulationion accelerationmagnetopauseMHD simulationAstronomyQB1-991Geophysics. Cosmic physicsQC801-809ENFrontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, Vol 8 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Kelvin-Helmholtz instability test particle simulation ion acceleration magnetopause MHD simulation Astronomy QB1-991 Geophysics. Cosmic physics QC801-809
spellingShingle	Kelvin-Helmholtz instability test particle simulation ion acceleration magnetopause MHD simulation Astronomy QB1-991 Geophysics. Cosmic physics QC801-809 Xuanye Ma Peter Delamere Katariina Nykyri Brandon Burkholder Stefan Eriksson Yu-Lun Liou Ion Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations
description	Over three decades of in-situ observations illustrate that the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability driven by the sheared flow between the magnetosheath and magnetospheric plasma often occurs on the magnetopause of Earth and other planets under various interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. It has been well demonstrated that the KH instability plays an important role for energy, momentum, and mass transport during the solar-wind-magnetosphere coupling process. Particularly, the KH instability is an important mechanism to trigger secondary small scale (i.e., often kinetic-scale) physical processes, such as magnetic reconnection, kinetic Alfvén waves, ion-acoustic waves, and turbulence, providing the bridge for the coupling of cross scale physical processes. From the simulation perspective, to fully investigate the role of the KH instability on the cross-scale process requires a numerical modeling that can describe the physical scales from a few Earth radii to a few ion (even electron) inertial lengths in three dimensions, which is often computationally expensive. Thus, different simulation methods are required to explore physical processes on different length scales, and cross validate the physical processes which occur on the overlapping length scales. Test particle simulation provides such a bridge to connect the MHD scale to the kinetic scale. This study applies different test particle approaches and cross validates the different results against one another to investigate the behavior of different ion species (i.e., H+ and O+), which include particle distributions, mixing and heating. It shows that the ion transport rate is about 1025 particles/s, and mixing diffusion coefficient is about 1010 m2 s−1 regardless of the ion species. Magnetic field lines change their topology via the magnetic reconnection process driven by the three-dimensional KH instability, connecting two flux tubes with different temperature, which eventually causes anisotropic temperature in the newly reconnected flux.
format	article
author	Xuanye Ma Peter Delamere Katariina Nykyri Brandon Burkholder Stefan Eriksson Yu-Lun Liou
author_facet	Xuanye Ma Peter Delamere Katariina Nykyri Brandon Burkholder Stefan Eriksson Yu-Lun Liou
author_sort	Xuanye Ma
title	Ion Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations
title_short	Ion Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations
title_full	Ion Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations
title_fullStr	Ion Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations
title_full_unstemmed	Ion Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations
title_sort	ion dynamics in the meso-scale 3-d kelvin–helmholtz instability: perspectives from test particle simulations
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/54798c8ca6f943e3b92ef29fbbe5aa4e
work_keys_str_mv	AT xuanyema iondynamicsinthemesoscale3dkelvinhelmholtzinstabilityperspectivesfromtestparticlesimulations AT peterdelamere iondynamicsinthemesoscale3dkelvinhelmholtzinstabilityperspectivesfromtestparticlesimulations AT katariinanykyri iondynamicsinthemesoscale3dkelvinhelmholtzinstabilityperspectivesfromtestparticlesimulations AT brandonburkholder iondynamicsinthemesoscale3dkelvinhelmholtzinstabilityperspectivesfromtestparticlesimulations AT stefaneriksson iondynamicsinthemesoscale3dkelvinhelmholtzinstabilityperspectivesfromtestparticlesimulations AT yulunliou iondynamicsinthemesoscale3dkelvinhelmholtzinstabilityperspectivesfromtestparticlesimulations
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Ion Dynamics in the Meso-scale 3-D Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability: Perspectives From Test Particle Simulations

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