Magnetospheric Plasma Systems Science and Solar Wind Plasma Systems Science: The Plasma-Wave Interactions of Multiple Particle Populations

Abstract

Read online

Building upon the research legacies of Peter Gary and Richard Thorne, this perspective discusses a plasma-system picture wherein multiple ion and electron populations interact with each other via multiple types of plasma waves. The two cases discussed are 1) the Earth’s magnetosphere with ion and electron populations trapped in the closed flux tubes of the magnetic dipole and 2) the solar wind with ion and electron populations expanding away from the Sun in open magnetic flux tubes. For the magnetosphere, internal convection drives particle populations into stronger magnetic fields, leading to particle anisotropies; for the solar wind the expansion of the plasma away from the Sun results in the particle populations moving into weaker magnetic fields, leading also to particle anisotropies. In both cases, the anisotropies of the diverse ion and electron populations produce kinetic instabilities resulting in the production of diverse types of plasma waves and wave-particle interactions. Following the extensive research of Richard Thorne, web diagrams of plasma-wave interactions are laid out for the multiple ion and electron populations of the magnetosphere and following the extensive research of Peter Gary web diagrams of plasma-wave interactions are laid out for the multiple ion and electron populations of the solar wind. The advantages of a systems-analysis approach to these two plasma systems is discussed.

Keywords

• magnetosphere
• solar wind
• system science
• plasma waves
• plasma instabilities