Ion acceleration by lower hybrid waves in the suprauroral region

Technical Report · Sat Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6839020

Retterer, J M; Chang, T; Jasperse, J R

In an effort to describe ion conic acceleration, particle plasma simulation is used to study the generation of very-low-frequency waves below field-aligned potential drops and the effect of the resulting turbulence on the ion population in the suprauroral region. To model the situation, a weak, energetic electron beam traveling along the magnetic field is allowed to destabilize a cool electron-ion plasma. To describe the ion acceleration observed in the simulation, a theoretical model is developed using mode-mode coupling processes to generate the low phase velocity VLF waves with which the ions first interact. Scaling the simulation results to suprauroral conditions demonstrates that the VLF turbulence generated below field aligned potential drops can account for the acceleration of ions observed in energetic ion conic distributions.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6839020
• Report Number(s): AD-A-175036/3/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
AURORAE
AURORAL ZONES
BEAMS
CHARGED PARTICLES
COOLING
DISTRIBUTION
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
INTERACTIONS
ION DENSITY
IONS
LEPTON BEAMS
LEPTONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PARTICLE BEAMS
PLASMA SIMULATION
PLASMA WAVES
SIMULATION
TURBULENCE