Nonlinear Theory of the Collisional Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Equatorial Spread F.

Abstract

The nonlinear behavior of the collisional Rayleigh-Taylor instability is studied in equatorial Spread F by including a dominant two-dimensional nonlinearity. It is found that on account of this nonlinearity, the instability saturates by generating damped higher spatial harmonics. This saturated power spectrum for the density fluctuations goes like 1/k squared. A comparison between experimental observations and theory is presented. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1977
Accession Number
ADA047402

Entities

People

  • P. K. Chaturvedi
  • Sidney L. Ossakow

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Electric Fields
  • Electronics Laboratories
  • Electrons
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Instability
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Military Research
  • Navy
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Power Spectra
  • Rayleigh Taylor Instability
  • Space Systems
  • Spectra
  • Systems Engineering
  • Two Dimensional
  • Universities

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.