EGU22-1976
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1976
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Magnetotail Ion Structuring by Kinetic Ballooning-Interchange Instability

Evgeny V. Panov1, San Lu2, and Philip L. Pritchett3
Evgeny V. Panov et al.
  • 1Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, Austria (evgeny.panov@oeaw.ac.at)
  • 2CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

By combining three-probe THEMIS observations and 3-D Particle-in-Cell simulations, we identify key structures on the ion gyroradius scale that occur in connection with ballooning-interchange instability (BICI) heads in the Earth’s magnetotail. The mesoscale structures occur at sites of strong ion velocity shear and vorticity where the thermal ion Larmor radius is about half of the width of the head. Finer structures occur at the smaller scales characterizing the wavelength of the electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves generated at the heads. These two processes act to erode and thin the current sheet, thereby forming a local magnetotail configuration that is favorable for reconnection.

How to cite: Panov, E. V., Lu, S., and Pritchett, P. L.: Magnetotail Ion Structuring by Kinetic Ballooning-Interchange Instability, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1976, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1976, 2022.