Plasmaspheric Wind Simulations
Numerical simulations of the plasmaspheric wind, based on the interchange instability mechanism
Interchange motion was originally introduced in magnetospheric physics by Gold (1959) half a century ago. Various subsequent interpretations, formulations and studies have been proposed since.
A DataPaper explaining all this is stored in the BIRA-IASB repository:
- Lemaire, J. F., & Darrouzet, F. (2025). Numerical simulations of the plasmaspheric wind, based on the interchange instability mechanism (Version 1). Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. https://doi.org/10.18758/co2eixy9
References are also mentioned in the DataPaper.
For example, the history is explained in more details in this document: Interchange_History (.pdf)
5 animations illustrate the different classes of interchange and quasi-interchange motion that plasma elements (ions and electrons) can experience in a dipole magnetic field. At initial time all plasma elements are distributed along segments of dipole magnetic field lines.
Animation 1: This is the interchange oscillation from Gold's (1959). It corresponds to pure-interchange of plasma elements. The plasma elements oscillate back and forth across magnetic field lines, however, without perturbing their distribution.
Animation 3: This corresponds to the type 1 Quasi-Interchange mode (transverse mode).
Animation 5: This corresponds to the plasmaspheric wind.
Animation 2: This is a pure-interchange mode, which is convectively unstable. This case corresponds to a steady state expansion of plasma elements in the direction transverse to the magnetic field lines.
Animation 4: This corresponds to the type 2 Quasi-Interchange mode (translational mode).
