Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm13b2083w&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM13B-2083
Physics
Plasma Physics
[2774] Magnetospheric Physics / Radiation Belts, [7831] Space Plasma Physics / Laboratory Studies And Experimental Techniques, [7867] Space Plasma Physics / Wave/Particle Interactions
Scientific paper
Highly energetic electrons produced naturally or artificially can be trapped in the earth's radiation belts for months, posing a danger to satellites in space. An experimental investigation of the scattering of mirror trapped fast electrons by a shear Alfvén wave is performed at the Large Plasma Device (LaPD) at UCLA, and sheds light on a technique for artificially de-trapping the hazardous electrons in space. The experiment is performed in a quiescent afterglow plasma (ne ≈ 0.1 to 1×1012cm-3, Te ≈ 0.5 eV, B0 = 400 to 1200 G, L = 18 m, and diameter = 0.6 m). The magnetic field is programmed to include a mirror section approximately 3 m long, with 1.1 ≤Rmirror≤ 4. A trapped fast electron population is generated in the mirror section using second harmonic Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH). The heating source comprises a 25 kW magnetron, operating at 2.45 GHz, with the microwave power injected for 10 - 50 ms. Longer injection periods (τ>30ms) result in a population of runaway electrons (energies up to 5MeV) as evidenced by X-ray production when the electron orbits hit a probe or the waveguide. The fastest electrons are generated in an annular region in front of the waveguide, with a radial extent of several cm and axial extent L ≈ 1 m. Shear Alfvén waves are launched with Bwave/B0 less than 0.5%, at frequencies ranging from 115 to 230 kHz (0.19 to 0.75 of fci in the straight field). Using the X-ray production, v⊥ probes and Langmuir probes as diagnostics, the Alfvén waves are observed to have a dramatic effect on the run-away electrons (E~105eV) as well as the less energetic electrons (E~102eV): the Alfvén wave can modify the trapped electron orbits to the extent that they are lost from the mirror trap. Possible mechanisms for scattering include the shear Alfvén wave breaking of one or more adiabatic invariants of an electron in a mirror field. This work is supported by The Office of Naval Research and performed at the Basic Plasma Science Facility under ONR MURI 00014-07-1-0789. The BaPSF is funded by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
Gekelman W. N.
Papadopoulos Konstantinos
Pribyl Patrick
Wang Yadong
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