A case study of the plasma in the magneto-sheath using the numerical magnetosheath-magnetosphere model and THEMIS measure-ments

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of the plasma parameters in the magnetosheath, based on THEMIS measurements. As a theoretical tool we apply the self-consistent magnetosheath-magnetosphere model. A specific aspect of the model is that the positions of the bow shock and the magnetopause are self-consistently determined. In the magnetosheath the distribution of the velocity, density and temperature is calculated, based on the gas-dynamic theory. The magnetosphere module allows for the calculation of the magnetopause currents, confining the magnetic field into an arbitrary non-axisymmetric magnetopause. The variant of the Tsyganenko magnetic field model is applied as an internal magnetic field model. As solar wind monitor we use measurements from the WIND spacecraft. The results show that the model quite well reproduces the values of the ion density and velocity in the magnetosheath. The simlicity of the model allows calulations to be perforemed on a personal computer, which is one of the mean advantages of our model.