Kelvin-Helmholtz(K-H) waves are formed from the triggering of the K-H instability on the magnetopause,which is a candidate mechanism for solar wind entry into the magnetosphere,especially under northward interplanetary magnetic field conditions.In this study,a K-H wave event was identified from the observation of probe B of the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms(THEMIS) mission on 15 May 2008.A new method to determine the wave parameters of the K-H waves in single-spacecraft observations is proposed.The dominant wave period is determined by three kinds of spectrograms for three key parameters,namely the ion density,the ion temperature,and the z component of magnetic field.The phase velocity is estimated by calculating the center-of-mass velocity of the detected K-H vortex region.This approximation is validated by comparison with other alternative methods.The method to determine the wave parameters is a first step to further study K-H wave properties and their relationship with interplanetary conditions.
The plasma transport between the plasmasphere and the ionosphere in response to the interplanetary conditions is still not fully understood until now.Simultaneous observations of the plasmasphere and ionosphere from the newly developed Chinese Meridian Project provide a new opportunity for understanding the characteristic of the plasma transport and the coupling mechanism between these two regions.We investigate the response of the plasmasphere(L≈2)and ionosphere to the solar wind dynamic pressure pulse during geomagnetically quiet period of 21–27 March 2011.The response of the plasmasphere shows a significant depletion.The plasmaspheric density nearly decreases by half in response to the solar wind dynamic pressure pulse,and subsequently recovers to the original level in 1–2 d.Meanwhile,the maximum electron density of the ionospheric F2 layer(NmF2)and the total electron content(TEC)increase by 13%and 21%,respectively,and then gradually recover,which is opposite to the behavior during magnetic storms.Preliminary analysis shows that the plasmaspheric depletion may be mainly caused by the southward interplanetary magnetic field and changing dawn-dusk electric field.The plasmaspheric density variations seem to be controlled by both the IMF and ionospheric conditions.
By use of the global PPMLR Magnetohydrodynamics(MHD) model,a serial of quasisteady-state numerical simulations were conducted to examine the modulation property of the interplanetary magnetic field clock angle θ on the solar wind energy input into the magnetosphere.All the simulations can be divided into seven groups according to different criteria of solar wind conditions.For each group,37 numerical examples are analyzed,with the clock angle varying from 0° to 360° with an interval of 10°,keeping the other solar wind parameters(such as the solar wind number density,velocity,and the magnetic field magnitude) unchanged.As expected,the solar wind energy input into the magnetosphere is modulated by the IMF clock angle.The axisymmetrical bell-shaped curve peaks at the clock angle of 180°.However,the modulation effect remains invariant with varying other solar wind conditions.The function form of such an invariant modulation is found to be sin(0/2)^(2.70) + 0.25.
