Physical Processes Commons^™

Mms Observations Of The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability And Associated Ion Scale Waves, Rachel C. Rice

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The detailed mechanisms coupling the solar wind to Earth's magnetosphere are not yet fully understood. Solar wind plasma is heated non-adiabatically as it penetrates the magnetosphere, and this process must span scale sizes. Reconnection alone is not able to account for the observed heating; other mechanisms must be at work. One potential process is the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). The KHI is a convective instability which operates at the fluid scale in plasmas, but is capable of driving secondary process at smaller scales. Previous work has shown evidence of magnetic reconnection, various ion scale wave modes, mode conversion, and turbulence associated …