A Study of Spacecraft Electromagnetic Contamination of Artificial Electron Beams

Abstract

This report documents the numerical code developed for solving the dispersion equation of the electromagnetic dispersion equation for a finite radius electron beam in a neutralizing background. Derivation of the dispersion equation from the fluid equation and Maxwell's equations is described. To study electromagnetic radiation induced by electron beam injection from the Space Shuttle, the numerical code is applied to solve for the instability growth rates for the beam and whistler modes. The numerical solutions indicate that a finite-radius electron beam injected into the ionosphere with the beam energy around 1 keV and current about 100 mA can drive the beam and whistler modes unstable. The results can explain the whistler waves radiated from the keV electron beam injected from Spacelab 2. Keywords: Electromagnetic dispersion equation; Numerical code; Finite size beam.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 31, 1988
Accession Number
ADA209954

Entities

People

  • C. S. Lin

Organizations

  • Southwest Research Institute

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cerenkov Radiation
  • Charged Particles
  • Computational Science
  • Electric Fields
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Electron Beams
  • Equations
  • Frequency
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Particle Accelerators
  • Plasma Diagnostics
  • Plasma Instabilities
  • Plasma Waves
  • Radiation
  • Space Sciences
  • Space Shuttles
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster