Propagation and Damping of Kinetic Alfven Waves Generated During Magnetic Reconnection

Abstract:

Magnetospheric waves have the potential to convert to Kinetic Alfven Waves (KAW) at scales close to the ion larmor radius and the electron inertial length. At this length scale, it is observed that KAW generated at reconnection propagates super-Alfvenically and the wave is responsible for the parallel propagation of the Hall magnetic field near the separatrice from the magnetotial region. The pointing flux associated with this Hall magnetic field is also consistent with observed Cluster data observations [1]. An important question is whether this KAW energy will be able to propagate all the way to the Earth, creating aurora associated with a substorm. If this KAW propagation can be well understood, then this will provide valuable insight as to the relative timing of substorm onset versus reconnection onset in the magnetotail. The difficulty currently is that the nonlinear damping of KAW is not well understood even in a homogenous system, let alone more realistic magnetotail geometries including changes to density, magnetic field strength, and magnetic orientation. We study the propagation, dispersion, and damping of these KAWs using P3D, a kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code. Travelling waves are initialized based on a fluid model and allowed to propagate for substantial time periods. Damping of the waves are compared with Landau damping predictions. The waves are simulated in both homogenous and varying equilibrium meant to determine the effect on propagation. Implications for energetic electron production and Poynting flux input into the ionosphere are discussed.

[1] Shay, M. A., J. F. Drake, J. P. Eastwood, and T. D. Phan, Super-Alfvenic propagation of substorm reconnection signatures and Poynting flux,, Physics Review Letters, Vol. 107, 065001, 2011.