Publication Date:
2011-08-19
Description:
Plasmoids are closed magnetic-loop structures with entrained hot plasma which are inferred to occur on large spatial scales in space plasma systems. A model is proposed here to explain the brightening and rapid tailward movement of the barium cloud released by the AMPTE IRM spacecraft on May 13, 1985. The model suggests that a small-scale plasmoid was formed due to a predicted development of heavy-ion-induced tearing in the thinned near-tail plasma sheet. Thus, a plasmoid may actually have been imaged due to the emissions of the entrained plasma ions within the plasma bubble.
Keywords:
GEOPHYSICS
Type:
Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227); 94; 17084-17
Format:
text