Due to the difference in flow in the magnetopause boundary. This
flow difference produces shear on the magnetopause boundary and
produces the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. During the vortex roll
up, the magnetic field and the flows become decoupled, and the
magnetic field can reverses direction severaltimes while plasma
flows are vortical.
Kelvin-Helmholtz and associated intermittent reconnection
allows
Hybrid simulation
of the kelvin-Helmholtz instability
field lines to thread the magnetopause boundary. This viscous
rec-
at Saturn's magnetopause boundary showing the
onnection drives two way transport process of the momentum
thr-
magnitude of in-plane magnetic field. The streamlines
ough the boundary (Burkholder et. al.,
2017).
with arrows show the plasma flows. Magnetic filaments
form at the edges of the vortex, and numerous magnetic island
are formed through local reconnection (Delamere et. al., 2011).
Figure(bottom) left is the topological structure of the magnetic
field lines forming high latitude
reconnection sites (Ma. et. al., 2015). The figure bottom(right)
(Ma et. al., 2019) is the sketch of
local flux
tube interchange. Panel (a) shows the initial condition, while
panel (b) illustrates that
the twist of the magnetic field lines due to a localized
interchange instability can generate a pair of
high-latitude reconnection sites. Panel (c) shows eventually the
double-reconnection process
exchanges part of a magnetic flux tube, which transports plasma
radially outward without
significant ionospheric convection.
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