Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T03:39:28.569Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An assessment of how a combination of shears, field-aligned currents and collisions affect F-region ionospheric instabilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2007

J.-P. ST.-MAURICE ,
J.-M. NOËL  and
P. J. PERRON
J.-P. ST.-MAURICE
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CanadaS7N 5E2 (jp.stmaurice@usask.ca)
J.-M. NOËL
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, CanadaK7K 7B4
P. J. PERRON
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, CanadaK7K 7B4
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract.

We present an in depth study of the fluid limit of a kinetically derived collisional, current-driven instability that includes shears in the field-aligned currents as well as collisions. We show how the theory presented here generalizes other theories, including the collisionless current-driven electrostatic ion acoustic instability and its sheared collisionless version. We offer a low-frequency generalization of the zero frequency ion shear driven instability by minimizing the relative drift magnitude as well as the shears themselves. We discuss the implication of our theoretical framework both for strongly field-aligned modes and modes where the wavevectors have arbitrary angles with respect to the ambient magnetic field. We discuss the results in terms of F-region irregularity observations of coherent echoes by ionospheric radars.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , February 2007 , pp. 69 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Basu, B. and Coppi, B. 1989 Velocity shear and fluctuations in the auroral regions of the ionosphere. J. Geophys. Res. 94, 5316–5326.Google Scholar
Bhatnagar, P. L., Gross, E. P. and Krook, A. 1954 A model for collision processes in gases. I. Small amplitude processes in charged and neutral one-component systems. Phys. Rev. 94, 511–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaturvedi, P. K. and Ossakow, S. L. 1979 Nonlinear stabilization of the current convective instability in the diffuse aurora. Geophys. Res. Lett. 6, 957–959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Angelo, N. 1965 Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in a fully ionized plasma in a magnetic field. Phys. Fluids 8, 1748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forme, F. R. E. and Fontaine, D. 1999 Enhanced ion acoustic fluctuations an ion outflows. Ann. Geophys. 17, 182–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, J. C. 1988 Plasma turbulence and enhanced UHF radar backscatter from the topside ionosphere, In: Physics of Space Plasmas (1988), Chang, T. (ed.), vol. 8. pp. 213–229. Scientific Pub., Cambridge.Google Scholar
Foster, J. C. and Erickson, P. J. 2000 Simultaneous observations of E-region coherent backscatter and electric field amplitude at F-region heights with the Millstone Hill UHF radar. Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 3177–3180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gravrishchaka, V.-V., Ganguli, S. B. and Ganguli, G. I. 1998 Origin of low-frequency oscillations in the ionosphere. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 728–731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kagan, L. M. and St.-Maurice, J.-P. 2005 Origin of type-2 thermal-ion upflows in the auroral ionosphere. Ann. Geophys. 23, 12–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelley, M. C. 1989 The Earth's Ionosphere. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kindel, J. M. and Kennel, C. F. 1971 Topside current instabilities. J. Geophys. Res. 76, 3055–3078.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kintner, P. and D'Angelo, N. 1977 A transverse Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in a magnetized plasma. J. Geophys. Res. 82, 1628–1630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikhailovskii, A. B. 1974 Theory of Plasma Instabilities. Vol 1: Instabilities of a Homogeneous Plasma. New York: Consultants Bureau.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noël, J.-M. A., St.-Maurice, J.-P. and Blelly, P. L. 2000 Nonlinear model of short-scale electrodynamics in the aurora ionosphere. Ann. Geophys. 18, 1128–1144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noël, J.-M. A., St.-Maurice, J.-P. and Blelly, P. L. 2005 The effect on E-region wave heating on electrodynamical structures. Ann. Geophys. 23, 2081–2094.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ossakow, S. L. and Chaturvedi, P. K. 1979 Current convective instability in the diffuse aurora. Geophys. Res. Lett. 6, 332–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perron, P. J. 2004 Shear and current driven electrostatic instability in a collisional ionosphere: Numerical analysis of the fluid and kinetic dispersion relations. MSc Thesis, Department of Physics, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario.Google Scholar
Ruster, R. and Schlegel, K. 1999 Non-magnetic aspect sensitive auroral echoes from the lower E-region observed at 50 MHz. Ann. Geophys. 17, 1284–1292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Satyanaraynana, P. and Chaturvedi, P. K. 1985 Theory of the current-driven ion cyclotron instability in the bottomside ionosphere. J. Geophys. Res. 90, 12 209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedgemore-Schulthess, F. and St.-Maurice, J.-P. 2001 Naturally enhanced ion-acoustic spectra and their interpretation. Surveys Geophys. 22, 55–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
St.-Maurice, J.-P., Kofman, W. and James, D. 1996 In-situ generation of intense parallel fields in the lower ionosphere. J. Geophys. Res. 101, 335–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahlund, J. E. and Opgenoorth, H. J. 1989 EISCAT observations of strong ion outflows from the F-region ionosphere during auroral activity: preliminary results, Geophys. Res. Lett. 16, 727–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar