SPRG Seminars
April 13, 2010:
" Potential Consequences of the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at the Ionopause of Mars "
Dr. Katariina Nykyri - Embry Riddle
Our previous simulation results and comparison with Cluster spacecraft data have shown that reconnection can be generated in thin current layers produced by the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) at the Earth's magnetosphere. Our simulation studies of the KHI for the Earth's magnetospheric parameters have shown that reconnection due to KHI can facilitate efficient plasma transport from the solar wind to the magnetosphere during northward IMF conditions producing diffusion coefficients of the order 109 m2/s. When the magnetic fields are initially parallel and the asymmetry is small across the initial shear flow layer the reconnection inside KH vortices occurs always first at the high-density spine of the vortex -leading to plasma transport from high-density magnetosheath to low density magnetosphere. We expect that in Mars this process may be reversed because the plasma inside the ionosphere is more dense that in the magnetosheath. We show 2-D high resolution local MHD and Hall-MHD simulation results to discuss under which conditions ionospheric plasma clouds can be detached into the Martian magnetosheath via KHI.