Speaker
Prof.
Nikolai Pogorelov
(Department of Space Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville)
Description
Recent simulations of the solar wind (SW) interaction with the local
interstellar medium
(LISM) performed by our team showed that the heliopause is the
subject of various
hydrodynamic instabilities which allow for an efficient, but spotty,
mixing of the SW
and LISM plasmas. The analysis of the coupling between the
heliospheric and
interstellar magnetic fields (HMF and ISMF) shows the likelihood of
magnetic
reconnection. Besides, our simulations show spontaneous transition to
a stochastic
behavior of magnetic field in the region near the heliopause where the
heliospheric
current sheet is compressed to distances of the order of the observed
small-scale
fluctuations in the HMF. We discuss these issues in the context of our
new MHD and
kinetic simulations in the vicinity of the heliopause.
Primary author
Prof.
Nikolai Pogorelov
(Department of Space Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville)
Co-authors
Dr
Harald Kucharek
(University of New Hampshire)
Dr
Raymond Fermo
(CSPAR, University of Alabama in Huntsville)
Dr
Vadim Roytershteyn
(Space Research Institute)
