Physics
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusmsa22a..06d&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #SA22A-06
Physics
6929 Ionospheric Physics (2409), 7827 Kinetic And Mhd Theory, 7839 Nonlinear Phenomena, 2407 Auroral Ionosphere (2704), 2435 Ionospheric Disturbances
Scientific paper
For more than twenty years numerous radar observations demonstrate strongly elevated electron temperature, up to three thousand Kelvin, in the auroral or subauroral electrojets during magnetic storms. Anomalous electron heating always correlates with a strong convection electric field. The conventional Joule heating cannot account for the observed effect. It is widely accepted that anomalous electron heating is caused by turbulent electric fields developing in the lower ionosphere due to the modified two-stream or Farley-Buneman (F-B) instability. This instability is driven by the convection electric field. The objective of this paper is to present a numerical model of anomalous electron heating due to the F-B instability. The model includes the following basic elements. The turbulent electric field is assessed by a heuristic model, based on physical reasoning and on a comparison with few in-situ observations available. Since the electron distribution under a strong electric field is non-Maxwellian, the computer code is employed which solves local kinetic equation that describes the evolution of the electron distribution function in the presence of turbulent electric field. Then the frequency of electron-neutral collisions along with the rate of electron inelastic losses is computed using the modified electron distribution function. The electron and ion temperature are found from equations describing the energy balance which includes the inelastic losses. The effect of the electron and ion heating on the sound speed, and thus on the threshold of the F-B instability is also taken into account. The output of the model is validated against available radar observations of the elevated electron temperature obtained during magnetic storms.
Dimant Ya. S.
Milikh Gennady M.
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