Characteristics of Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves as Observed by the MMS from
September 2015 to March 2020
Abstract
The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission has presented a new
opportunity to study the fine scale structures and phenomena of the
Earth’s magnetosphere, including cross scale processes associated with
the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI), but such studies of the KHI and
its secondary processes will require a database of MMS encounters with
KH waves. Here we present an overview of 50 MMS observations of the KHI
from September 2015 to March 2020. Growth rates and unstable solid
angles for each of the 50 events were calculated using a new technique
to automatically detect plasma regions on either side of the
magnetopause boundary. There was no apparent correlation between solar
wind conditions during the KHI and its growth rate and unstable solid
angle, which is not surprising as KH waves were observed downstream of
their source region. We note most KHI were observed for solar wind flow
speeds between 295 km/s and 610 km/s, likely due to a filtering effect
of the instability onset criteria and plasma compressibility.
Two-dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic (2D MHD) simulations were compared
with two of the observed MMS events. Comparison of the observations with
the 2D MHD simulations indicates that the new region sorting method is
reliable and robust. The ability to automatically detect separate plasma
regions on either side of a moving boundary and determine the KHI growth
rate may prove useful for future work identifying and studying secondary
processes associated with the KHI.