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Alfven Wave - DC Dualism in Description of Stationary Field-Aligned CurrentsIn many cases, the field-aligned currents (FACs) in the Earth's magnetosphere and heliosphere may be described in terms of both DC currents and the currents of a propagating Alfven wave. The simplest example is when a propagating Alfven wave transports a potential hop along the magnetic fieid: between the source of the wave and its front, the problem is well stationary and includes the stationary field-aligned currents, transporting the electric charges along the magnetic field, which may be described as a DC problem, and only at the front of the wave there are the polarization (inertial) currents, closing across the magnetic field. In some cases, the Alfven wave approach brings better understanding to many problems. We will consider here the results of the applications of this approach to two long-staying problems: the effect of saturation of the transpolar voltage in the Earth's magnetosphere, and the experimentally-observed existence of the strong field-aligned currents in the subtle Mercury's magnetosphere which is not able tc close the measured field-aligned currents.
Document ID
20090033875
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Khazanov, George V.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2009
Subject Category
Space Sciences (General)
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2009 AGU Fall Meeting
Location: San Francisco, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: December 14, 2009
End Date: December 18, 2009
Sponsors: American Geophysical Union
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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