Observations of waves artificially stimulated by an electron beam inside a region with auroral precipitation

The POLAR 5 sounding rocket, launched from Andøya, Norway on 1 February, 1976 was of a “mother-daughter” configuration. An electron accelerator, mounted on the “daughter,” produced a pulsed electron beam with currents up to 130 mA and electron energies up to 10 keV. The waves, artificially stimulated by the injected electron beam, was studied using wave receivers, mounted on the “mother.” The receivers covered the frequency range from 0.1 kHz to 5 MHz.

In addition to the stimulated waves observed during beam injection, enhanced wave emissions were observed 10–20 ms after the end of beam injection. This emission seemed to be relatively independent of whether the electron beam is launched up or down along the geomagnetic field.

The high frequency emission observed after beam injection is found to be correlated with the passage through an auroral arc. In particular this emission is closely correlated with the flux of 4–5 keV auroral electrons.

The low frequency emissions observed after beam injection are concentrated in two bands below the lower hybrid frequency.

Different mechanisms for explaining the observed time delays between the beam injection and the observation of the emissions are discussed.     

Numerical simulation of electromagnetic emissions in the solar wind plasma with non-thermal electron distribution

Dynamics of fundamental and second harmonic electromagnetic emissions are simulated in the solar wind plasma in the presence of non-thermal electron distribution function in which primary Langmuir waves are driven by an electron beam. The electron velocity distribution function is separated into two distributions representing the distribution of the ambient electrons (Maxwellian) and the suprathermal electrons (non-thermal electrons). The effects of the non-thermal electrons on the generation of primary Langmuir waves, emission rates of the fundamental (F) and harmonic waves (H) and their distributions are investigated. The both of the F and H emissions are sensitive to the characterizes of the non-thermal electrons. It is found that in the presence of non-thermal electrons the production of the Langmuir waves decreases and consequently the levels of fundamental and second harmonic waves are reduced. The emission rate of the fundamental transverse waves decreases and its peak moves slightly toward smaller wave-numbers.     

Energy gain by an electron beam due to a whistler soliton in the solar wind

The interaction of a whistler soliton with a nonrelativistic electron beam streaming along the external magnetic field is considered. Our results are applied to the solar wind.     

The existence of stationary ion-acoustic double layers in a plasma with an electron beam

The stationary ion-acoustic double layer is investigated in a plasma with an electron beam. The condition of the existence sensitively depends on the parameters such as the electron beam temperature, the ion temperature, the beam density and the effect of the trapped electrons. The properties of the double layer are also depicted. It turns out that the electron beam velocity is relatively small. This investigation predicts new findings of the ion-acoustic double layers in a plasma with an electron beam.     

On spin-flip radiation from an electron moving with a helical path in a magnetized plasma

We study certain features of radiation arising from spin flipping of an electron or positron gyrating with a general pitch in a magneto-active plasma. Numerical analysis of the power spectrum is carried out, and a comparison is made between this radiation and the normal synchrotron radiation. The essential idea of application to astrophysical radiation in the electromagnetic -wave range is also discussed.     

Electrostatic instability excited by an electron beam trapped in the magnetic mirror of the magnetosphere

A dispersion relation which takes into account the nonuniformity of the magnetic field as well as the plasma density along the field lines is obtained for an electrostatic wave propagating parallel to the magnetic field. This dispersion relation is solved for a particular case in which a group of electrons with a monochromatic distribution in magnetic moment is mixed with a low energy plasma. Such electrons are shown to excite ion acoustic waves carried by the low-energy plasma component near multiples of the bounce frequency of these electrons. The theoretical results are applied to explain electrostatic oscillations with a period of approximately fifty seconds observed in the high energy electron fluxes at synchronous altitude.     

Scattering of electromagnetic waves by electron acoustic waves

It is shown that a large amplitude electromagnetic wave can parametrically excite low-frequency electrostatic modified electron acoustic waves which are unique to three-component plasmas ions, hot electrons and a group of cold electrons. The growth rates and thresholds of the decay instabilities are obtained. Application of our results in the auroral region of the ionosphere is illustrated.     

Initial expansion phase of an artificially injected electron beam

We consider the expansion of an electron beam (E ～ 20 keV, I ～ 1 A) artificially injected into the magnetosphere at a high latitude (Λ ～ 60°). We show that, although the space charge effects play an important role during the initial phase of the expansion, it is the magnetic field at the place of the injection which governs the beam radius and the beam density. For an injection parallel to the magnetic field, the ratio between the beam kinetic energy density and the magnetic energy when the beam passes through the Equator, may reach important values (～ 2–5). However, taking into account possible beam instabilities could strongly modify this conclusion.     

Generation of atmospheric turbulence by solar radiation

A statistical framework of weak turbulence is applied to investigate the maintenance of atmospheric turbulence during a long period, even after the external energy supply from solar radiations has stopped. Thus, the problem of hydrodynamical turbulence without any mean motion is dealt with. Main attention is drawn to one-dimensional Burgers equation, together with a discussion devoted mainly to Millionshtchikov's hypothesis, which may be applied as a consequence of the assumed weak turbulence. Remarkably, this leads to an explicit proof of the existence of the cascade process in turbulence. The results are illustrated by numerical calculations.On study leave from the Department of Physics, M.S. College, Subaranpur, U.P., India.     

Assessment of Jovian synchrotron radiation with a bi-modal electron population

An explicit formula is developed to explore the mechanism of the synchrotron radiation by using a bi-modal loss-cone distribution function. The variation of the distribution function along the field line is modeled in detail and the evaluation of the total power in the synchrotron radiation is presented. The variance of synchrotron radiation with latitude depends on the electron anisotropy; for low anisotropy, synchrotron radiation increases with latitude and reaches a maximum at the particle mirror points; for high anisotropy, it decreases with latitude and maximizes at the equator. A bi-modal population is therefore suggested to explain the radiation intensity which peaks both at the equator and at high latitude.     

The ionization balance of the Fe in the solar corona for a non-Maxwellian electron distribution function

The ionization equilibrium of the Fe in the solar corona for a non-Maxwellian electron distribution with an enhanced number of particles in the high-energy tail is presented. A parametric form of the distribution function is used to demonstrate the changes in the ionization equilibrium with changes in the shape of the distribution. The results over the range of temperature 10⁵ K T 10⁸ K for different deviations of the distribution from a Maxwellian are given in tabular form. The results can be used for specific applications in the solar corona, especially in the active corona, where deviations from the Maxwellian distribution can be significant.     

Hollow beam distribution of energetic electrons and higher harmonics of electron cyclotron maser

The variations of the growth rates of ECM at first four harmonics in X-, Z-, and O-modes excited by a hollow beam distribution of weakly relativistic electrons with a parameter _p / _e are presented in this paper. The results show that the second harmonic of ECM in X-mode dominates the instability if < 1, and if 1.2 , 2 or 2.2 3 the third or fourth harmonic will dominate. The second and third harmonics of Z-mode waves grow faster only if 2 2.2 and 3 3.2, respectively, so it would not be a competition in most cases. It is suggested that the ECM emission at these harmonics in X-mode is a possible mechanism to produce solar spike emissions with high brightness temperature at shorter and longer decimetric wavelengths.Proceedings of the Workshop on Radio Continua during Solar Flares, held at Duino (Trieste), Italy, 27–31 May, 1985.On leave from the Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, Nanjing, The People's Republic of China.     

Polar 5—an electron accelerator experiment within an aurora. 4. Measurements of the 391.4 nm light produced by an artificial electron beam in the upper atmosphere

The POLAR 5 sounding rocket, launched from Andøya, Norway, on February 1, 1976, was of the “mother-daughter” configuration.A rocket-borne electron accelerator, mounted on the “daughter,” produced a pulsed electron beam with a maximum current of 130 mA and electron energies up to 10 kev.Using a photometer the luminescence at 391.4nm produced by electrons colliding with ambient nitrogen molecules was studied. The observed light at 391.4 nm consisted of low background, with occasional flashes due to the natural auroral excitations, and intense sparkles when the electron beam was emitted.Below 130 km the light observed during beam injection can be explained by excitations of ambient N₂ due to high energy beam electrons.In the altitude range from 150 km to apogee at 220 km, the observed light level during beam emission is fairly constant and much larger than that produced by the high energy beam electrons. A possible source of this light is the excitation of ambient N₂ by an enhanced population of low energy electrons, created by the presence of a beam plasma discharge in the vicinity of the “daughter” payload.     

Asymmetry parameter and efficiency for radiation pressure and scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a very large dielectric sphere

The asymmetry parameter of the scattering diagram and the efficiency for radiation pressure for scattering by a very large dielectric sphere conforming to geometrical optics and diffraction, have been investigated beyond the limit of existing literature. A new feature of shallow broad extremum (resonance) has been found in the asymmetry parameter as well as in the radiation pressure both as function of the index of refraction.     

POLAR 5—an electron accelerator experiment within an aurora. 2. Scattering of an artificially produced electron beam in the atmosphere

The interaction between an artificially produced narrow beam of electrons and the upper atmosphere has been studied by the POLAR 5 electron accelerator “mother”-“daughter” rocket. It is shown how the beam develops a “halo” of scattered electrons and how the low energy electron population in this “halo” is produced partly during the ionization process (at low altitudes), partly by a “wave-plasma” interaction which accelerates the ionospheric background electrons.     

Propagation of two-solitons in an electron acoustic waves in a plasma with electrons featuring Tsallis distribution

A first theoretical work is presented to study the propagation of two-solitons in an electron acoustic waves (EAWs) within the theoretical framework of the Tsallis statistical mechanics. For this purpose, cylindrical and spherical Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equations are derived for electron acoustic solitary waves (EASWs) in an unmagnetized three species plasma system comprised of cold electrons, immobile ions and hot electrons featuring Tsallis statistics by employing the standard reductive perturbation method. The effects of electron nonextensivity and the fractional number density of the hot electrons relative to that of the cold ones number density (α) on the profiles of two-soliton structures are investigated numerically. Results would be helpful for understanding the localized structures that may occur in space plasmas.     

Instability of a thin field-aligned electron beam in a plasma

The formulation of Elliott (1975) is recapitulated somewhat more elegantly for a monenergetic beam of “Top Hat” profile. The mode corresponding most closely to the parallel-polarized mode in a uniform beam is explored for phase velocities less than the beam velocity and frequencies between the hybrid frequencies. The mere existence of solutions indicates the possibility of instability in some real case. Solutions are found for all frequencies except for a range above the gyrofrequency, beyond which a ducted solution exists up to the plasma frequency. In the other range radiative solutions exist.The nature of the results provides a guide for several applications, but more realistic models must be specific to the application.