Perturbation of the magnetic field in the Earth’s magnetosphere due to plateau creation in the radial distribution of plasma pressure

Abstract

The nonlinear perturbation of a dipole field by a system of transverse currents, which arises due to the radial pressure distribution when the pressure is almost independent of the radial distance, is analyzed. This distribution of pressure was observed in the experiment. The radial dependences of the magnetic field depression, transverse current density, and volumes of magnetic flux tubes have been obtained at different values of the plasma parameter via nonlinear simulation. It is shown that a dependence of the volume of magnetic flux tube on the radial distance can change and a region of the negative gradient of volume can appear at some plasma-parameter values.