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Scattering of electromagnetic waves from a plasma: Enhanced ion acoustic fluctuations due to ion‐ion two‐stream instabilities
Author(s) -
Wahlund J.E.,
Forme F. R. E.,
Opgenoorth H. J.,
Persson M. A. L.,
Mishin E. V.,
Volokitin A. S.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/92gl02101
Subject(s) - ion , plasma , instability , physics , ion acoustic wave , ionosphere , atomic physics , spectral line , two stream instability , incoherent scatter , scattering , computational physics , geophysics , optics , mechanics , astronomy , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
Observations by the ElSCAT and Millstone Hill radars of strongly enhanced, often asymetric, ion acoustic line spectra in the topside auroral ionosphere have been reported recently by a number of researchers. Such strongly enhanced ion acoustic line spectra are shown to arise naturally in a plasma unstable to the ion‐ion two‐stream instability. A linear theory of density fluctuations is used for the calculations, which should be applicable to weakly unstable non‐magnetized plasmas near the onset threshold of the instability.