Interpretation of Meteor Trail Anomalous Diffusion

Details Interpretation of Meteor Trail Anomalous Diffusion Interpretation of Meteor Trail Anomalous Diffusion

May 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sa22a12d&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SA22A-12

Physics

2415 Equatorial Ionosphere, 2435 Ionospheric Disturbances, 2471 Plasma Waves And Instabilities

Scientific paper

We present plasma simulations demonstrating that meteor trails are unstable to growth of gradient-drift Farley-Buneman (GDFB) waves. Radar observation of non-specular echos produced from field-aligned irregularities, appear to confirm that instabilities develop on observed trails. Results from a suite of meteor trail simulations conducted for altitudes from 95-115 km show instability generated turbulent diffusion in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. This anomalous diffusion can be up to an order of magnitude larger than expected from ambipolar diffusion theory. A physical understanding of the nature of the anomalous diffusion may allow for a more precise definition of its effect on observed trails. We present an analysis of the anomalous diffusion to show that it results from a wave driven transport mechanism. The waves produce a δ ěc E field that produces an ěc E x ěc B electron flux outward from the trail. The outward flux levels rise rapidly with instability growth and appear to saturate when anomalous flux reaches ~ 90% of the outward flux. This apparent saturation should allow for the accurate interpretation of radar meteor diffusion in spite of thier turbulent nature. Since actual trails are likely composed of several ion species, we present the first multi-species plasma simulations meteor trails.

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