On the Importance of the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability on Magnetospheric and Solar Wind Dynamics during High Magnetic Shear

The secondary processes driven by the velocity shear driven Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) in the magnetized plasmas have been shown to be important in producing plasma transport and heating from the shocked solar wind into the Earth's magnetosphere (MSP). The plasma transport into the MSP due to KHI has been shown to be strongest during northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) via KHI driven mid-latitude reconnection process. In a recent article, Li et al., 2023 show Magnetosphere Multi-Scale (MMS) spacecraft observations of multiple, Alfvenic reconnection jets during southward IMF at the dawn-side MSP flank. The quasi-periodic oscillations in plasma parameters and compressed, ion-scale current sheets were strongly indicative of the MMS crossing regions of MSP-like and magnetosheath (MSH)-like plasma within Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) waves. In this brief commentary, the importance of this discovery for magnetospheric and solar wind dynamics is discussed.