On the ballooning instability of the coupled Alfvén and drift compressional modes

• Published in: Earth, planets, and space Vol. 64; no. 9; pp. 777 - 781
• Main Authors: Klimushkin, D. Yu, Mager, P. N., Pilipenko, V. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-01-2012; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geology; Geophysics/Geodesy; Letter; Ballooning instability; gyrokinetics; substorm onset; coupled modes; MHD waves
• ISSN: 1343-8832; 1880-5981
• DOI: 10.5047/eps.2012.04.002

The paper examines the ballooning instability in gyrokinetic approximation taking into account the effects of finite-
β
, magnetic field line curvature, and diamagnetic drift. We used a simple model with a constant curvature of magnetic field lines which enabled us to obtain analytical results. The possible plasma oscillatory modes comprise the poloidal Alfvén and drift compressional modes, coupled due to the magnetic field line curvature and plasma inhomogeneity. The frequencies of these modes depend on the westward current value. As this value grows, the frequencies of these two branches approach to each other, and the branches are merged at some critical value of the current. Then an instability develops which is called the drift ballooning coupling instability. There are three major differences of the drift ballooning coupling instability from the ordinary MHD ballooning instability: (1) the drift ballooning coupling instability is not aperiodic, there is a real part of the oscillation frequency of the order of the drift frequency, (2) only the mode with the same direction of the azimuthal phase speed as the velocity of the ion diamagnetic drift can be unstable, (3) the instability threshold depends on the diamagnetic drift frequency.