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Plasma wave excitation on meteor trails in the equatorial electrojet
Author(s) -
Chapin Elaine,
Kudeki Erhan
Publication year - 1994
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 - 10.1029/94gl01705
Subject(s) - meteor (satellite) , electrojet , equatorial electrojet , geology , geophysics , physics , ionosphere , doppler effect , meteorology , astronomy , earth's magnetic field , magnetic field , quantum mechanics
The unusual properties of meteor echoes recently observed at Jicamarca [ Chapin and Kudeki, 1994] are attributed to the growth and propagation of plasma irregularities along meteor trails deposited within the equatorial electrojet. It is suggested that trails at electrojet heights must carry intense discharge currents that excite two‐stream and/or gradient drift instabilities for irregularity growth. The direction of electron motion responsible for the discharge current agrees with the Doppler shift of the high frequency components in meteor echo signals.