Determination of equilibrium electron temperature and times using an electron swarm model with BOLSIG+ calculated collision frequencies and rate coefficients
Abstract
Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) events produce low-energy conduction electrons from Compton electron or photoelectron ionizations with air. It is important to understand how conduction electrons interact with air in order to accurately predict EMP evolution and propagation. An electron swarm model can be used to monitor the time evolution of conduction electrons in an environment characterized by electric field and pressure. Here a swarm model is developed that is based on the coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) described by Higgins et al. (1973), hereinafter HLO. The ODEs characterize the swarm electric field, electron temperature, electron number density, and drift velocity. Important swarm parameters, the momentum transfer collision frequency, energy transfer collision frequency, and ionization rate, are calculated and compared to the previously reported fitted functions given in HLO. These swarm parameters are found using BOLSIG+, a two term Boltzmann solver developed by Hagelaar and Pitchford (2005), which utilizes updated cross sections from the LXcat website created by Pancheshnyi et al. (2012). We validate the swarm model by comparing to experimental effective ionization coefficient data in Dutton (1975) and drift velocity data in Ruiz-Vargas et al. (2010). In addition, we report on electron equilibrium temperatures and times for a uniform electric fieldmore »
- Authors:
-
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1224050
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-15-20109
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X; TRN: US1600422
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 120; Journal Issue: 15; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Citation Formats
Pusateri, Elise N., Morris, Heidi E., Nelson, Eric M., and Ji, Wei. Determination of equilibrium electron temperature and times using an electron swarm model with BOLSIG+ calculated collision frequencies and rate coefficients. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1002/2015JD023100.
Pusateri, Elise N., Morris, Heidi E., Nelson, Eric M., & Ji, Wei. Determination of equilibrium electron temperature and times using an electron swarm model with BOLSIG+ calculated collision frequencies and rate coefficients. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023100
Pusateri, Elise N., Morris, Heidi E., Nelson, Eric M., and Ji, Wei. Tue .
"Determination of equilibrium electron temperature and times using an electron swarm model with BOLSIG+ calculated collision frequencies and rate coefficients". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023100. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1224050.
@article{osti_1224050,
title = {Determination of equilibrium electron temperature and times using an electron swarm model with BOLSIG+ calculated collision frequencies and rate coefficients},
author = {Pusateri, Elise N. and Morris, Heidi E. and Nelson, Eric M. and Ji, Wei},
abstractNote = {Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) events produce low-energy conduction electrons from Compton electron or photoelectron ionizations with air. It is important to understand how conduction electrons interact with air in order to accurately predict EMP evolution and propagation. An electron swarm model can be used to monitor the time evolution of conduction electrons in an environment characterized by electric field and pressure. Here a swarm model is developed that is based on the coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) described by Higgins et al. (1973), hereinafter HLO. The ODEs characterize the swarm electric field, electron temperature, electron number density, and drift velocity. Important swarm parameters, the momentum transfer collision frequency, energy transfer collision frequency, and ionization rate, are calculated and compared to the previously reported fitted functions given in HLO. These swarm parameters are found using BOLSIG+, a two term Boltzmann solver developed by Hagelaar and Pitchford (2005), which utilizes updated cross sections from the LXcat website created by Pancheshnyi et al. (2012). We validate the swarm model by comparing to experimental effective ionization coefficient data in Dutton (1975) and drift velocity data in Ruiz-Vargas et al. (2010). In addition, we report on electron equilibrium temperatures and times for a uniform electric field of 1 StatV/cm for atmospheric heights from 0 to 40 km. We show that the equilibrium temperature and time are sensitive to the modifications in the collision frequencies and ionization rate based on the updated electron interaction cross sections.},
doi = {10.1002/2015JD023100},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres},
number = 15,
volume = 120,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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