Self-Consistent Nuclear Particle and Field Studies.
Abstract
The objectives of this study were to approach the problem of plasmas artificially injected into the high altitude ionosphere from the viewpoint of their interaction with the ambient electromagnetic field environment (e.g., those associated with the magnetospheric substorm and the daily wobble of the earth's dipole magnetic field) and in a self-consistent manner to examine the mutual influence of the plasma and the electromagnetic field. It was found that the natural electric fields contribute to both the drift motion and structuring of the plasma. To do this, the principal sources of the natural electric field were identified, and a model of the most persistent field (resulting from the daily variation of the magnetospheric magnetic field) was developed. The model describes the total electric field which includes a component produced by the plasma as it responds to the field induced by the wobbling dipole. The natural electric fields in the magnetosphere have periods of the order of 0.25 hour, or more, and are thus very low frequency in character. As a result they penetrate the plasmas of interest here with very little loss of energy (i.e., have large skin depths). The estimates of plasma properties were performed under several simplifying assumptions; the range of values used are typical of the cases of interest to this study. The dominant feature of the problem is the extremely low frequency range of the electromagnetic waves.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA083343
Entities
People
- G. J. Mroz
- K. A. Pfitzer
- S. Schneider
- W. P. Olson