Open session on Magnetospheric, Ionospheric and Solar-Terrestrial physics
Date Submitted
2017-04-13 14:12:02
Tom Elsden
University of St Andrews
Andrew Wright (University of St Andrews)
The coupling of fast and Alfven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves is of fundamental interest in the study of astrophysical plasmas. This process, known as field line resonance (FLR) in Earth's magnetosphere, results in a localised accumulation of energy in the plasma at the location where the fast and Alfven frequencies match.
We present results from a 3D MHD simulation which investigates this coupling in a nonuniform dipole equilibrium. We discuss a theoretical framework for interpreting resonances in 3D (which are fundamentally different from 1D & 2D), that is well supported by the numerical experiments.