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Physics of Plasmas / Volume 19 / Issue 2 / ARTICLES / Basic Plasma Phenomena, Waves, Instabilities

Phys. Plasmas 19, 022104 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3682039 (8 pages)

2.5D magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability around Venus—Comparison of the influence of gravity and density increase

M. Zellinger1,2, U. V. Möstl1,2, N. V. Erkaev3,4, and H. K. Biernat1,2

1Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 8042 Graz, Austria
2Institute of Physics, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria
3Siberian Federal University, 660041 Krasnoyarsk, Russia
4Institute of Computational Modelling SB RAS, 660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russia

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(Received 27 May 2011; accepted 27 December 2011; published online 14 February 2012)

We present a numerical study of the 2.5D Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and its vortices, where an initial plasma configuration appropriate for the situation around unmagnetized planets is assumed. We solve the set of ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations numerically with the total variation diminishing Lax-Friedrichs algorithm. Our density profile is such that the mass density increases toward the planet. A high density leads to smaller growth rates of the instability and, thus, has a stabilizing effect for the boundary layer. Moreover, we include source terms in the equations, enabling us to study the influence of gravity. Our results show that gravity affects the evolution of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. However, the effect is not very significant. We thus conclude that the density increase toward the planet stabilizes the boundary layer around Venus more than gravity does.

© 2012 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. MHD EQUATIONS
  3. NUMERICAL METHOD
  4. INITIAL CONDITIONS
  5. RESULTS
  6. DISCUSSION

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

astrophysical plasma, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, numerical analysis, plasma boundary layers, plasma density, plasma magnetohydrodynamics, plasma simulation, Venus, vortices

PACS

  • 52.30.Cv

    Magnetohydrodynamics (including electron magnetohydrodynamics)

  • 52.65.Kj

    Magnetohydrodynamic and fluid equation

  • 52.35.Py

    Macroinstabilities (hydromagnetic, e.g., kink, fire-hose, mirror, ballooning, tearing, trapped-particle, flute, Rayleigh-Taylor, etc.)

  • 96.30.Ea

    Venus

  • 95.30.Qd

    Magnetohydrodynamics and plasmas

  • 52.35.We

    Plasma vorticity

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3682039

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1070-664X (print)  
1089-7674 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

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