Inertial currents in isotropic plasma

Abstract

The magnetospheric convection electric field contributes to Birkeland currents. The effects of the field are to polarize the plasma by displacing the bounce paths of the ions from those of electrons, to redistribute the pressure so that it is not constant along magnetic field lines, and to enhance the pressure gradient by the gradient of the bulk speed. Changes in the polarization charge during the convection of the plasma are neutralized by electrons in the form of field‐aligned currents that close through the ionosphere. The pressure drives field‐aligned currents through its gradient in the same manner as in quasi‐static plasma, but with modifications that are important if the bulk speed is of the order of the ion thermal speed; the variations in the pressure along field lines are maintained by a weak parallel potential drop. These effects are described in terms of the field‐aligned currents in steady state, isotropic, MHD plasma. Solutions are developed by taking the MHD limit of two‐fluid solutions and illustrated in the special case of Maxwellian plasma for which the temperature is constant along magnetic field lines. The expression for the Birkeland current density is a generalization of Vasyliunas' expression for the field‐aligned current density in quasi‐static plasma and provides a unifying expression when both pressure gradients and ion inertia operate simultaneously as sources of field‐aligned currents. It contains a full account of different aspects of the ion flow (parallel and perpendicular velocity and vorticity) that contribute to the currents. Contributions of ion inertia to field‐aligned currents will occur in regions of strong velocity shear, electric field reversal, or large gradients in the parallel velocity or number density, and may be important in the low‐latitude boundary layer, plasma sheet boundary layer, and the inner edge region of the plasma sheet.