A STUDY OF IONOSPHERIC IRREGULARITIES AND THEIR RELATION TO LABORATORY-PRODUCED PLASMA VORTICES,
Abstract
Ionospheric irregularities investigated are highly localized enhancements or depressions of the ambient electron density of the ionosphere. The times of occurrence of the irregularities indicate that they are the result of turbulence in the earth's ionosphere. Laboratory experiments indicate that spinning blobs of plasma, called plasma vortices, may be good analogues to the ionospheric irregularities. These vortices, resulting from turbulent conditions in the rear of the current sheet of a coaxial accelerator, or the explosion from the button gun are found to be stable plasma structures. They are deduced to be elongated along a backround magnetic field and to rotate about an axis parallel to the field lines. Their translational motion is perpendicular to these field lines and does not appear to be slowed by the magnetic field. Thus laboratory vortices born of turbulence, drifting perpendicular to a backround field, and elongated parallel to it appear capable of connection with ionospheric irregularitis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0616360
Entities
People
- Aristotle Papayoanou
- Winston H. Bostick
Organizations
- United States Army Communications-Electronics Command