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The electrodynamic effects of MOSC‐like plasma clouds
Author(s) -
Retterer John,
Groves Keith M.,
Pedersen Todd R.,
Caton Ronald G.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1002/2016rs006085
Subject(s) - plasma , rayleigh–taylor instability , electric field , physics , ionosphere , instability , geophysics , atmospheric sciences , computational physics , mechanics , quantum mechanics
Abstract The effects on the plasma/electrodynamic environment in the low‐latitude ionosphere produced by the artificial plasma clouds created in the Metal Oxide Space Cloud (MOSC) experiment are studied via simulations. The electric fields and plasma flow in the vicinity of the cloud are calculated using its estimated field‐line‐integrated conductance; it is found that the “comma‐like” flow around the cloud seen in the ALTAIR (Advanced Research Project Agency [ARPA] Long‐range Tracking and Identification Radar) observations can be explained by the perturbations to the electric field produced by the conductance gradients around the cloud. Next, the conductance is introduced into a simulation of the development of the Rayleigh‐Taylor instability. The simulations suggest that a moderately denser cloud than the MOSC cloud, closer to the bottom edge of the F layer, could indeed suppress the development of the low‐density plumes and the shorter‐wavelength irregularities associated with radio scintillation that form with the Rayleigh‐Taylor instability in the low‐latitude ionosphere.