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A theoretical investigation on the parametric instability excited by X‐mode polarized electromagnetic wave at Tromsø
Author(s) -
Wang Xiang,
Can Patrick,
Zhou Chen,
Honary Farideh,
Ni Binbin,
Zhao Zhengyu
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2016ja022411
Subject(s) - instability , excitation , physics , parametric statistics , two stream instability , excited state , mechanics , electric field , computational physics , mode (computer interface) , atomic physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , statistics , computer science , operating system
Recent ionospheric modification experiments performed at Tromsø, Norway, have indicated that X‐mode pump wave is capable of stimulating high‐frequency enhanced plasma lines, which manifests the excitation of parametric instability. This paper investigates theoretically how the observation can be explained by the excitation of parametric instability driven by X‐mode pump wave. The threshold of the parametric instability has been calculated for several recent experimental observations at Tromsø, illustrating that our derived equations for the excitation of parametric instability for X‐mode heating can explain the experimental observations. According to our theoretical calculation, a minimum fraction of pump wave electric field needs to be directed along the geomagnetic field direction in order for the parametric instability threshold to be met. A full‐wave finite difference time domain simulation has been performed to demonstrate that a small parallel component of pump wave electric field can be achieved during X‐mode heating in the presence of inhomogeneous plasma.