Simulations of the nonlinear stage of Farley-Buneman instability with allowance for electron thermal effects

Journal Article · Wed Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Plasma Physics Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X09070095· OSTI ID:21405855

Kovalev, D V; Smirnov, A P ^[1]; Dimant, Ya S ^[2]

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1. Moscow State University (Russian Federation)
2. Boston University, Center for Space Physics (United States)

The Farley-Buneman instability is a two-stream instability observed in the weakly ionized plasma of the E region of the Earth's ionosphere. In the present paper, the effect of nonisothermal behavior of electrons on the development of this instability is investigated by numerical simulations. The instability is described using fluid equations for the electron density and temperature, a kinetic equation for ions, and Poisson's equation. In contrast to most previous studies, the simulations are performed by numerically solving partial differential equations, rather than by the particle method. With allowance for thermal effects, the simulation results become more realistic, because the amplitudes of the perturbed electric field and plasma oscillations decrease and the instability develops over a longer time. It is shown that the influence of electron thermal effects is more pronounced at low values of the external electric field.

• OSTI ID: 21405855
• Journal Information: Plasma Physics Reports, Journal Name: Plasma Physics Reports Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 35; ISSN PPHREM; ISSN 1063-780X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHARGED PARTICLES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
E REGION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
FERMIONS
INSTABILITY
IONOSPHERE
IONS
KINETIC EQUATIONS
LEPTONS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA MICROINSTABILITIES
PLASMA WAVES
POISSON EQUATION
SIMULATION
TWO-STREAM INSTABILITY