Lower Hybrid Waves Generated in the Wake of the Galileo Spacecraft.

Computer Science – Numerical Analysis

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

During the first flyby of Earth by the Galileo spacecraft, which occurred on December 8, 1990, spin-modulated bursts of broadband electrostatic noise were observed with an intensification near the local lower hybrid frequency. These bursts occurred while the spacecraft was passing through the plasmasphere, where both the plasma density and the magnetic field strength are relatively high. By analyzing the spin modulation, which consisted of one burst per spacecraft rotation, we have been able to show that the waves are generated in the spacecraft wake. To explain the observations, we suggest that plasma density gradients in the wake produce the waves via the electrostatic lower-hybrid-drift instability (LHDI). The LHDI is a consequence of the coupling between the vec E times vec B -drift wave, which is driven by an electric field associated with plasma density gradients, and the lower hybrid wave. The coupling occurs by means of the diamagnetic drift induced by the plasma density gradient across the magnetic field. Numerical solutions of the dispersion relation show that strong wave growth occurs over a broad frequency range, with a peak growth rate near the lower hybrid resonance frequency. The numerical analysis demonstrates that the LHDI occurs over a wide range of plasma parameters, including those that are believed to exist in the wake. These results also suggest that lower hybrid waves previously believed by other researchers to be of natural origin may in fact have been generated in spacecraft wakes via the LHDI mechanism.

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