Penetration simulation of the magnetopause

Different mechanisms, like impulsive penetration and magnetic reconnection, have in the past few decades been suggested as possible means for the shocked solar wind plasma in the magnetosheath to enter the magnetosphere. Recent measurements from the Cluster spacecraft have shown that plasma indeed does penetrate the magnetopause. At KTH a series of experiments have been performed using a plasma gun that shoots a plasma at a transverse magnetic field. The plasma penetrates the barrier and enters the transverse field region, and while doing so generates waves in the lower hybrid frequency range.
Waves at lower hybrid frequencies have also been measured on the inside of the magnetopause by the Cluster spacecraft.
Particle in cell simulations have been used to model the plasma behaviour in the experiment, and many of the experimentally observed features could be reproduced in the simulations.

The objective of this project is to transform these simulations to magnetospheric scales, to simulate plasma penetration of the magnetopause, and to analyse the results. It is expected that the use of simulations of both the space and laboratory situations will provide the scaling laws that can quantify the comparison of the processes that are similar and that are different in the laboratory and in space.

The project is carried out at West Virginia University (WVU), which also is the new home of the aforementioned plasma gun, which is currently being reassembled and modernised. Project leader and scientific adviser at WVU is Dr Herbert Gunell.