EGU21-10417, updated on 04 Mar 2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10417
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Quasi-adiabtic particle dynamics in thin current sheets with a magnetic shear

Victor Popov2,1,3, Helmi Malova3,4, and Marina Belyalova3
Victor Popov et al.
  • 1National Research University "Higher School of Economics", Moscow, Russian Federation
  • 2Physical Department of Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
  • 3Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
  • 4Scobeltsyn Niclear Physics Institute of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

The dynamics of quasi-adiabatic ions in thin current sheets (TCSs) of the planetary magnetotails and solar wind is investigated, when the characteristic scale of the magnetic inhomogeneity is compared with proton gyroradii. A numerical model of TCS is constructed, taking into account the constant normal magnetic component and three kind of the shear magnetic field distributions: 1) constant, 2) bell-shaped relatively equatorial plane and 3) anti-symmetric ones. The Poincaré cross- sections characterizing quasi-adiabatic ion dynamics are considered. The jumps of the quasi-adiabatic invariant of motion are calculated and compared with the case of the absent magnetic shear. It is shown that the presence of constant and bell-shaped magnetic components in the current sheet leads to the asymmetry of particle scattering in the Northern-Southern direction and the peculiarities of the structure of phase space. It is shown that the jumps of the quasi-adiabatic Iz invariant differ are different for plasma flows located in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.  At the same time, for configurations with anti-symmetric shear component, the particle scattering near TCS neutral plane is insignificant and the scattering asymmetry is absent. The results of this study are discussed in terms of their application to explain experimental data.

This work is supported by RFBR grant 19-02-00957.

How to cite: Popov, V., Malova, H., and Belyalova, M.: Quasi-adiabtic particle dynamics in thin current sheets with a magnetic shear, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-10417, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10417, 2021.