POP: Ionospheric, Solar-System, and Astrophysical Plasmas http://scitation.aip.org/ POP: Ionospheric, Solar-System, and Astrophysical Plasmas Consequences of spontaneous reconnection at a two-dimensional non-force-free current layer http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/19/022901/1&agg=rss J. Fuentes-Fernandez, C. E. Parnell, A. W. Hood, E. R. Priest, and D. W. Longcope<br/> Magnetic neutral points, where the magnitude of the magnetic field vanishes locally, are potential locations for energy conversion in the solar corona. The fact that the magnetic field is identically zero at these points suggests that for the study of current sheet formation and of any subsequent re ... [Phys. Plasmas 19, 022901 (2012)] published Wed Feb 8, 2012. Self-heating in kinematically complex magnetohydrodynamic flows http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/19/012901/1&agg=rss Zaza Osmanov, Andria Rogava, and Stefaan Poedts<br/> The non-modal self-heating mechanism driven by the velocity shear in kinematically complex magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma flows is considered. The study is based on the full set of MHD equations including dissipative terms. The equations are linearized and unstable modes in the flow are looked for ... [Phys. Plasmas 19, 012901 (2012)] published Wed Jan 18, 2012. The stability of the mesospheric plasma layer http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/122902/1&agg=rss B. P. Pandey and S. V. Vladimirov<br/> The presence of micron and sub-micron size dust in the Earth's summer mesopause are a possible cause of electron density depletion. Whereas electrons in this weakly ionized and weakly magnetized layer are frozen in the magnetic field, the ions and dust are highly diffusive. This relative drift betwe ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 122902 (2011)] published Tue Dec 27, 2011. Energy budgets in collisionless magnetic reconnection: Ion heating and bulk acceleration http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/122901/1&agg=rss N. Aunai, G. Belmont, and R. Smets<br/> This paper investigates the energy transfer in the process of collisionless antiparallel magnetic reconnection. Using two-dimensional hybrid simulations, we measure the increase of the bulk and thermal kinetic energies and compare it to the loss of magnetic energy through a contour surrounding the i ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 122901 (2011)] published Tue Dec 13, 2011. Plasma-beta dependence of the fast reconnection mechanism in an initially force-free current sheet http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/102903/1&agg=rss M. Ugai<br/> The present paper systematically studies the spontaneous fast reconnection mechanism in an initially force-free current sheet in a wide range of plasma beta (beta); in our previous work it was studied for a special case of beta = 0.15. In each case, the evolution as well as the resulting structure o ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 102903 (2011)] published Thu Oct 27, 2011. Wave associated anomalous drag during magnetic field reconnection http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/102902/1&agg=rss F. S. Mozer, M. Wilber, and J. F. Drake<br/> The anomalous drag, D, due to large amplitude plasma waves is used for the first time, in place of eta*j, to estimate dissipation at the sub-solar magnetopause and to determine the extent to which this drag accounts for the reconnection electric field. This anomalous drag is determined by measuring ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 102902 (2011)] published Fri Oct 14, 2011. Electron dynamics in two-dimensional asymmetric anti-parallel reconnection http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/102901/1&agg=rss J. Egedal, A. Le, P. L. Pritchett, and W. Daughton<br/> Kinetic simulations and spacecraft observations have documented strong anisotropy in the electron distribution function during magnetic reconnection. The level and role of electron pressure anisotropy is investigated for asymmetric geometries applicable to reconnection in the day-side magnetopause. ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 102901 (2011)] published Wed Oct 12, 2011. A laboratory experiment to examine the effect of auroral beams on spacecraft charging in the ionosphere http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/092905/1&agg=rss M. U. Siddiqui, L. E. Gayetsky, M. R. Mella, K. A. Lynch, and M. R. Lessard<br/> A 2.54 cm diameter conducting electrically isolated Copper sphere is suspended in a low density (10 cm), low temperature (T = 0.5 eV) Argon plasma, which mimics a spacecraft in an ionospheric plasma. An electron beam with current density of approximately 10 A/cm and beam spot of 10.2 cm diameter, wh ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 092905 (2011)] published Wed Sep 28, 2011. On the bounce-averaging of scattering rates and the calculation of bounce period http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/092904/1&agg=rss K. G. Orlova and Y. Y. Shprits<br/> For many applications to planetary magnetospheres and elsewhere in the Universe, it is desirable to average physical quantities such as particle and plasma transport coefficients over a charged particle's bounce motion between magnetic mirror points along field lines. In this paper, we perform such ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 092904 (2011)] published Mon Sep 26, 2011. Particle acceleration by circularly and elliptically polarised dispersive Alfven waves in a transversely inhomogeneous plasma in the inertial and kinetic regimes http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/092903/1&agg=rss D. Tsiklauri<br/> Dispersive Alfven waves (DAWs) offer, an alternative to magnetic reconnection, opportunity to accelerate solar flare particles in order to alleviate the problem of delivering flare energy to denser parts of the solar atmosphere to match x-ray observations. Here, we focus on the effect of DAW polaris ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 092903 (2011)] published Mon Sep 26, 2011. Simulations reveal fast mode shocks in magnetic reconnection outflows http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/092902/1&agg=rss Jared C. Workman, Eric G. Blackman, and Chuang Ren<br/> Magnetic reconnection is commonly perceived to drive flow and particle acceleration in flares of solar, stellar, and astrophysical disk coronae but the relative roles of different acceleration mechanisms in a given reconnection environment are not well understood. While outflow fast mode shocks have ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 092902 (2011)] published Thu Sep 15, 2011. Electrostatic Korteweg-deVries solitary waves in a plasma with Kappa-distributed electrons http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/092901/1&agg=rss C.-R. Choi, K.-W. Min, and T.-N. Rhee<br/> The Korteweg-deVries (KdV) equation that describes the evolution of nonlinear ion-acoustic solitary waves in plasmas with Kappa-distributed electrons is derived by using a reductive perturbation method in the small amplitude limit. We identified a dip-type (negative) electrostatic KdV solitary wave, ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 092901 (2011)] published Tue Sep 6, 2011. Whistler anisotropy instability at low electron beta: Particle-in-cell simulations http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/082902/1&agg=rss S. Peter Gary, Kaijun Liu, and Dan Winske<br/> The whistler anisotropy instability is studied in a magnetized, homogeneous, collisionless plasma model. The electrons (denoted by subscript e) are represented initially with a single bi-Maxwellian velocity distribution with a temperature anisotropy T/T>1, where [perpendicular] and || denote directi ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 082902 (2011)] published Fri Aug 5, 2011. The role of the electron convection term for the parallel electric field and electron acceleration in MHD simulations http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/082901/1&agg=rss K. Matsuda, N. Terada, Y. Katoh, and H. Misawa<br/> There has been a great concern about the origin of the parallel electric field in the frame of fluid equations in the auroral acceleration region. This paper proposes a new method to simulate magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations that include the electron convection term and shows its efficiency with ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 082901 (2011)] published Fri Aug 5, 2011. Evolution of symmetric reconnection layer in the presence of parallel shear flow http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/072903/1&agg=rss Haoyu Lu and Jinbin Cao<br/> The development of the structure of symmetric reconnection layer in the presence of a shear flow parallel to the antiparallel magnetic field component is studied by using a set of one-dimensional (1D) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. The Riemann problem is simulated through a second-order conser ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 072903 (2011)] published Tue Jul 26, 2011. Electron-acoustic solitary waves in the presence of a suprathermal electron component http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/072902/1&agg=rss Ashkbiz Danehkar, Nareshpal Singh Saini, Manfred A. Hellberg, and Ioannis Kourakis<br/> The nonlinear dynamics of electron-acoustic localized structures in a collisionless and unmagnetized plasma consisting of cool inertial electrons, hot electrons having a kappa distribution, and stationary ions is studied. The inertialess hot electron distribution thus has a long-tailed suprathermal ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 072902 (2011)] published Thu Jul 21, 2011. Formation of sheet plumes, current coils, and helical magnetic fields in a spherical magnetohydrodynamic dynamo http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/072901/1&agg=rss Takehiro Miyagoshi, Akira Kageyama, and Tetsuya Sato<br/> Aiming at understanding of magnetic field generation process in rapidly rotating stars and planets represented by the Earth, computer simulations of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) dynamo were performed in a rotating spherical shell geometry. Thermal convection and dynamo process with Ekman number of the ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 072901 (2011)] published Tue Jul 5, 2011. Global Hall-MHD simulations of magnetorotational instability in a plasma Couette flow experiment http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/062904/1&agg=rss F. Ebrahimi, B. Lefebvre, C. B. Forest, and A. Bhattacharjee<br/> Global MHD and Hall-MHD numerical simulations relevant to the Madison plasma Couette flow experiment (MPCX) have been performed using the extended MHD code NIMROD. The MPCX has been constructed to study the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in a plasma. The two-fluid Hall effect, which is relevant ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 062904 (2011)] published Thu Jun 30, 2011. Secondary instability of Jeans mode in a gravitating fluid with uniform rotation http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/062903/1&agg=rss Nikhil Chakrabarti<br/> An axisymmetric rotating gas in a gravitational field is examined for its stability to two dimensional disturbances with first azimuthal mode. It is shown that a quasi-equilibrium is established when pressure and Coriolis force act against primary Jeans instability. A linear perturbation on this inh ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 062903 (2011)] published Thu Jun 23, 2011. Slow EIT waves as gravity modes http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/062902/1&agg=rss J. Vranjes<br/> The EIT waves [named after the extreme-ultraviolet imaging telescope (EIT) onboard the solar and heliospheric observatory (SOHO)] are in the literature usually described as fast magneto-acoustic (FMA) modes. However, observations show that a large percentage of these events propagate with very slow ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 062902 (2011)] published Wed Jun 15, 2011. Kinetic description of quasi-stationary axisymmetric collisionless accretion disk plasmas with arbitrary magnetic field configurations http://link.aip.org/link/?PHP/18/062901/1&agg=rss Claudio Cremaschini, John C. Miller, and Massimo Tessarotto<br/> A kinetic treatment is developed for collisionless magnetized plasmas occurring in high-temperature, low-density astrophysical accretion disks, such as are thought to be present in some radiatively inefficient accretion flows onto black holes. Quasi-stationary configurations are investigated, within ... [Phys. Plasmas 18, 062901 (2011)] published Fri Jun 10, 2011.