St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Mathematics & Statistics (School of)
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Mathematics Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Mathematics & Statistics (School of)
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Mathematics Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Mathematics & Statistics (School of)
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Mathematics Theses
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

The effects of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of the magnetosphere

Thumbnail
View/Open
KatharineMillsPhDThesis.pdf (33.39Mb)
Date
1999
Author
Mills, Katharine J.
Supervisor
Wright, Andrew Nicholas
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Abstract
In this thesis, the behaviour of Kelvin-Helmholtz unstable modes on the magnetospheric flanks and in the magnetotail are investigated. A model of a straight bounded magnetosphere connected to a semi-infinite field-free magnetosheath which is flowing with a uniform speed is used. First the magnetosphere is taken to be uniform with the magnetic field perpendicular to the flow in the magnetosheath and it is shown that the increase in Pc5 wave power observed for high solar wind flow speeds correlates well with the onset of instability of the fast body modes. A condition for the exact onset of instability of these modes is derived and the behaviour of fast surface and slow body and surface modes is also investigated. Using a non-uniform magnetosphere, it is shown that these unstable body modes may couple to field line resonances. The fastest growing modes are found to have a common azimuthal phase speed which depends only on the local conditions at the magnetopause and may be predicted using the theory of over-reflection. A finite width boundary layer is then added to the uniform magnetosphere model to investigate the space-time evolution of wave-packets on the magnetopause. Fast surface mode wave-packets are found to grow rapidly as they convect around the flanks so that non-linear effects will be important. Fast cavity mode wave-packets will remain relatively small on the flanks, explaining the robustness of the body of the magnetosphere here. Slow modes are found to grow very little in this region. Finally, a uniform magnetosphere with the magnetic field parallel to the flow in the magnetosheath is considered. Here, the fast modes are unlikely to be Kelvin-Helmholtz unstable for realistic flow speeds, and the magnetopause boundary may be reasonably assumed to be perfectly reflecting. The low value of the plasma pressure is this region suggests that slow modes will be unimportant.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Collections
  • Applied Mathematics Theses
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13990

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter