Abstract
Bursty bulk flows increase the parallel pressure faster than the perpendicular pressure in the high-β central plasma sheet driving the firehose instability [S. Ji and R. A. Wolf, J. Geophys. Res. 108, 1191 (2003); S. Ji and R. A. Wolf, J. Geophys. Res.30, 2242 (2003)]. A nonlinear partial differential equation is derived and an initial-value code developed to investigate the firehose anisotropy-driven turbulence in the Earth’s geotail. It is essential to include dispersive ion kinetic effects in order to limit the range of linearly unstable parallel wave numbers and to achieve a stationary nonlinear turbulent state. The nonlinear dynamics of the firehose instability provides a possible explanation for ultralow-frequency Pi-2 fluctuations associated with bursty bulk flows and substorms.
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