Generation of vortex‐induced tearing mode instability at the magnetopause

A two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation is performed to study the generation of the vortex-induced tearing mode instability at the magnetopause. When a sheared magnetic field exists along with the velocity shear, the tearing mode will couple with the Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability. The shear Alfven Mach number MA plays an essential role in determining the linear properties and nonlinear evolution of the coupled instability. When the magnetic field is fixed, if MA < 0.4, the spontaneous tearing mode is dominated; when 0.4 ≤ MA ≤ 1, the tearing mode is apparently modified by the K-H instability; as 1 < MA, the coupled instability, called the vortex-induced tearing mode (VITM) instability, appears to be intrinsically different from the conventional tearing mode instability. The long time asymptotic quasi-static state for the VITM instability is characterized by a large-scale fluid vortex together with a concentric magnetic island. The linear properties and nonlinear evolution of the VITM instability are not significantly changed with different Reynolds and magnetic Reynolds number used in the simulation.

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