Stability of upgoing auroral ion beams at 3. 3 R/sub e/

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6988390

Ludlow, III, G R

Simultaneous upflowing hydrogen and oxygen beam of ionospheric origin are seen at altitudes near 3.3 R/sub e/ in the auroral zone by the DE-1 satellite. The beam observations indicate that, in addition to bulk acceleration, substantial heating in both hydrogen and oxygen has taken place either near or above the cold ionospheric source region. Velocity space distributions of the two ion species show hydrogen having a higher streaming velocity than oxygen, but also a smaller streaming energy. The region of velocity space between the two ion beam peaks was filled in, with ions in the oxygen beam having been accelerated and hydrogen ions having been decelerated. This suggests wave particle interactions at lower altitudes enabled the transfer of energy from the hydrogen to the oxygen. Maxwellian fits to the beam distributions are used to study the stability of the beams with respect to various low frequency electromagnetic waves. By identifying the growing wave modes generated by the observed distribution functions, one can obtain information bout any heating that is taking place in the vicinity of the satellite. This also gives one information on the nature of the heating mechanism at lower altitudes.

• Research Organization: New Hampshire Univ., Durham (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6988390
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
AURORAL ZONES
BEAMS
CHARGED PARTICLES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
HEATING
HYDROGEN IONS
ION BEAMS
IONOSPHERE
IONS
LONG WAVE RADIATION
NONMETALS
OXYGEN
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
RADIATIONS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION