Physics
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sa42a07d&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SA42A-07
Physics
2407 Auroral Ionosphere (2704), 2411 Electric Fields (2712), 2435 Ionospheric Disturbances, 2467 Plasma Temperature And Density, 2471 Plasma Waves And Instabilities
Scientific paper
It is known from numerous radar observations that electron temperature in the polar electrojet rises significantly during substorms. Strong anomalous electron heating is predominantly caused by turbulent electric fields developing in the electrojet mostly as a result of the modified two-stream, or Farley-Buneman (F-B) instability driven by the convection electric field. This mechanism was first suggested by Schlegel and St-Maurice [1981]. However, the existing approximate models cannot interpret satisfactorily the available radar data. The objective of this paper is to present a model which estimates the temporally- and spatially-averaged electron temperature. The model obtains the electron temperature under quasi-stationary conditions through equating the electron Joule heating by the total electric field to the cooling via inelastic electron-neutral collisions. Since the nonlinear theory of the F-B instability is still far from complete, the presented model to estimate the electric field energy in the nonlinearly saturated turbulent state is based on some simple physical reasonings. Analysis of radar observations available from literature shows that for a moderate electron heating when the electron temperature does not exceed 2000 K the linear dependence of the temperature upon the convection electric field is evident. This is in line with the presented model. At stronger electron heating, some nonlinear effects become involved which are discussed in the paper.
Dimant Ya. S.
Milikh Gennady M.
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