Premium
Plasma waves excited in the upstream region by density gradient of energetic‐particle streams associated with the Earth's bow shock
Author(s) -
Wu C. S.,
Lin C. S.,
Wong H. K.
Publication year - 1981
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/gl008i004p00393
Subject(s) - physics , bow wave , bow shock (aerodynamics) , shock wave , plasma , ion , atomic physics , shock waves in astrophysics , excited state , excitation , geophysics , electron , computational physics , solar wind , mechanics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
The present study is concerned with the excitation of plasma waves at the boundaries of the streams of energetic particles which are associated with the earth's bow shock. The analysis was motivated by observational results acquired with the ISEE spacecraft (Parks et al . 1981). It is shown theoretically that the density gradient of energetic ions can only excite ion waves, whereas that of energetic electrons can excite both ion waves and Langmuir waves. This conclusion appears to be consistent with observations.