TY - CHAP
T1 - Complexity in space plasmas
AU - Chang, Tom
AU - Tam, Sunny W.Y.
AU - Wu, Cheng chin
N1 - Funding Information:
Some of the afore-mentioned ideas were motivated by conversations in the early nineties with S. Akasofu at a substorm conference convened in Fairbanks, Alaska and C. Kennel at an international conference on nonlinear dynamics in La Jolla, CA. The authors are indebted to many of their colleagues for comments and discussions. They are particularly grateful to G. Consolini, R. Bruno and D. Tetreault for the discussions related to the experimental and theoretical aspects of the coherent structures in space plasmas. This research is partially sponsored by NASA and NSF.
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - This chapter describes the phenomenon of complexity related to intermittent turbulence in space plasmas. Such phenomenon is analogous to the classical avalanching process of sand piles. When coherent structures of opposite polarities approach each other because of the force of the surrounding plasma, they might repel each other, scatter, or induce magnetically quiescent localized regions. The description is based on the stochastic interactions of the multitude of coherent structures of varied sizes that arise naturally from plasma resonances because of nonlinear interactions. The chapter introduces the concept of topological magnetic reconfigurations because of coarse-graining dissipation-induced nonlinear instabilities. Such magnetic reconfiguration can take place even for conserved non-dissipative plasma systems and can provide a physical explanation of the magnetic reconnection processes for non-dissipative plasma media.
AB - This chapter describes the phenomenon of complexity related to intermittent turbulence in space plasmas. Such phenomenon is analogous to the classical avalanching process of sand piles. When coherent structures of opposite polarities approach each other because of the force of the surrounding plasma, they might repel each other, scatter, or induce magnetically quiescent localized regions. The description is based on the stochastic interactions of the multitude of coherent structures of varied sizes that arise naturally from plasma resonances because of nonlinear interactions. The chapter introduces the concept of topological magnetic reconfigurations because of coarse-graining dissipation-induced nonlinear instabilities. Such magnetic reconfiguration can take place even for conserved non-dissipative plasma systems and can provide a physical explanation of the magnetic reconnection processes for non-dissipative plasma media.
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U2 - 10.1016/B978-044451881-1/50001-0
DO - 10.1016/B978-044451881-1/50001-0
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:84882520477
SN - 9780444518811
SP - 3
EP - 7
BT - Multiscale Coupling of Sun-Earth Processes
PB - Elsevier
ER -