A Simulation of High Latitude F-Layer Instabilities in the Presence of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling.
Abstract
A magnetic-field-line-integrated model of plasma interchange instabilities is developed for the high latitude ionosphere including magnetospheric coupling effects. We show that primary magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling effect is to incorporate the inertia of the magnetospheric plasma in the analysis. As a specific example, we present the first simulation of the E x B instability in the inertial regime, i.e., nu sub i << omega where nu sub i is the ion-neutral collision frequency and omega is the wave frequency. We find that the inertial E x B instability develops in a fundamentally different manner than in the collisional case ni sub i >> omega. Our results show that striations produced in the inertial regime are spread and retarded by ion inertial effects, and result in more isotropic irregularities than those seen in the collisional case. Keywords: Ionospheric structure; High latitude ionosphere; Magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling; Interchange instabilities. (Author).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 08, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA157475
Entities
People
- H. G. Mitchell Jr.
- J. A. Fedder
- Michael J. Keskinen
- Steven T.P. Zalesak
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory