Mesoscale ionospheric phenomena -- lower hybrid collapse, caviton turbulence, and charged particle energization in the topside ionosphere and magnetosphere. Technical report

Technical Report · Sun Mar 28 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:6518732

Chang, T

In 1981, Chang and Coppi suggested that lower hybrid turbulence could be the prime candidate for the acceleration of ions and generation of ion conics in the high latitude ionosphere and magnetosphere. Subsequently, Retterer, Chang and Jasperse demonstrated that nonlinear wave interactions near the lower hybrid frequency through modulational instability, such as the collapse of waves into soliton (caviton) turbulence could play a key role in the energization of both the ambient ions and electrons. Recent sounding rocket observations in the source region of the topside auroral ionosphere seem to confirm the details of such predictions (Kintner et al., Amoldy et al.). In this paper, the scenario of this interesting micro/meso scale, nonlinear wave-wave and wave-particle interaction plasma process in the auroral ionosphere/magnetosphere is briefly reviewed.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States). Center for Space Research
• OSTI ID: 6518732
• Report Number(s): AD-A-286655/6/XAB; CNN: F19628-91-K-0043
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661320* -- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AURORAE
CHARGED PARTICLES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY HEATING
IONOSPHERE
IONS
LEPTONS
LOWER HYBRID HEATING
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLASMA HEATING
QUASI PARTICLES
SOLITONS
TURBULENCE