Abstract
The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) can drive waves at the magnetopause.
These waves can grow to form rolled-up vortices and facilitate transfer of
plasma into the magnetosphere. To investigate the persistence and frequency
of such waves at the magnetopause we have carried out a survey of all Double
Star 1 magnetopause crossings, using a combination of ion and magnetic field
measurements. Using criteria originally used in a Geotail study made by
Hasegawa et al. (2006) (forthwith referred
to as H2006), 17 candidate events were identified from the
entire TC-1 mission (covering ~623 orbits where the magnetopause was
sampled), a majority of which were on the dayside of the terminator. The
relationship between density and shear velocity was then investigated, to
identify the predicted signature of a rolled up vortex from H2006 and all 17
events exhibited some level of rolled up behavior. The location of the
events had a clear dawn-dusk asymmetry, with 12 (71%) on the post noon,
dusk flank suggesting preferential growth in this region.
Citation
ID:
190673
Ref Key:
taylor2012annalesspatial