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A kinetic description of electron beam ejection from spacecraft
Author(s) -
Khazanov George V.,
Neubert Torsten,
Gefan Grigorii D.,
Trukhan Aleksander A.,
Mishin Evgeni V.
Publication year - 1993
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 - 10.1029/93gl01981
Subject(s) - physics , electron , beam (structure) , scattering , sounding rocket , kinetic energy , atomic physics , computational physics , diffusion , nuclear physics , classical mechanics , optics , quantum mechanics , astronomy
A model based on the Boltzmann kinetic equation describing electron beam ejection from spacecraft is presented. Results are shown for steady‐state, beam‐atmosphere interaction (BAI) and for beam‐plasma interaction (BPI). The BPI considered is that of elastic scattering of beam electrons with strong, short‐scale Langmuir turbulence. This mechanism has been suggested for prompt echoes of beam electrons observed in sounding rocket experiments. It is shown that the interaction is sufficiently strong to account for observations of back‐scattered electrons at the beam accelerator energy. However, it is clear from observations that particles undergo diffusion in energy at a rate exeeding levels expected for BAI. Inelastic scattering in BPI must therefore also be important.