Spectral characteristics of interchange turbulence in the ionosphere. Memorandum report

Technical Report · Wed Oct 22 00:00:00 EDT 1986

OSTI ID:7060144

Hassam, A B; Hall, W; Huba, J D; Keskinen, M J

The spectral characteristics of turbulence associated with the magnetized-plasma Rayleigh-Taylor instability in the presence of a background neutral gas are studied. Particular attention is paid to comparing the spectra obtained in the ion-neutral collision-dominated case with the spectra from the ion inertia-dominated case. A saturated level of turbulence is obtained for a model system confined between conducting boundaries with an imposed density gradient between the boundaries. The potential spectrum in the collisional case shows a marked anisotropy in contrast to that in the inertial case which is isotropic and exhibits Kolmogorov scaling. The anisotropy in the collisional case is attributed to the viscous nature of the turbulence and the consequent suppression of inertial overshoots. Application of these results to ionospheric turbulence is discussed.

• Research Organization: Science Applications International Corp., McLean, VA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7060144
• Report Number(s): AD-A-175975/2/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
IONOSPHERE
ION-ATOM COLLISIONS
ION-MOLECULE COLLISIONS
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
TURBULENCE
ANISOTROPY
DENSITY
GASES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
SATURATION
SPECTRA
ATOM COLLISIONS
COLLISIONS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
FLUIDS
INSTABILITY
ION COLLISIONS
MOLECULE COLLISIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
640201* - Atmospheric Physics- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena