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Ann. Geophys., 21, 1965-1973, 2003
www.ann-geophys.net/21/1965/2003/
© European Geosciences Union 2003
The penetration of ions into the magnetosphere through the magnetopause turbulent current sheet
A. Taktakishvili1, A. Greco2, G. Zimbardo2, P. Veltri2, G. Cimino2, L. Zelenyi3, and R. E. Lopez4
1Center for Plasma Astrophysics, Abastumani Observatory, 2a A.Kazbegi str., 380060 Tbilisi, Georgia
2Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita della Calabria, I-87030, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy
3Space Research Institute (IKI), 84/32 Profsoiuznaya str., 117810, Moscow, Russia
4The University of Texas at El Paso, 79968, El Paso, TX, USA
Abstract. This paper reports the
results of numerical modeling of magnetosheath ion motion in the magnetopause
current sheet (MCS) in the presence of magnetic fluctuations. Our model of
magnetic field turbulence has a power law spectrum in the wave vector space,
reaches maximum intensity in the center of MCS, and decreases towards the
magnetosheath and magnetosphere boundaries. We calculated the density profile
across the MCS. We also calculated the number of particles entering the
magnetosphere, reflected from the magnetopause and escaping from the flanks, as
a function of the fluctuation level of the turbulence and magnetic field shear
parameter. All of these quantities appeared to be strongly dependent on the
fluctuation level, but not on the magnetic field shear parameter. For the
highest fluctuation levels the number of particles entering the magnetosphere
does not exceed 15% of the total number of particles launched from the
magnetosheath side of the MCS; the modeling also reproduced the effective
reflection of the magnetosheath flow from very high levels of magnetic
fluctuations.
Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetosheath;
magnetospheric configuration and dynamics; turbulence)
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