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Observations of double layer‐like and soliton‐like structures in the ionosphere
Author(s) -
Boehm M. H.,
Carlson C. W.,
McFadden J.,
Mozer F. S.
Publication year - 1984
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/gl011i005p00511
Subject(s) - ionosphere , sounding rocket , physics , electric field , pulse (music) , flux (metallurgy) , depth sounding , atomic physics , computational physics , electron , geophysics , soliton , amplitude , ion , plasma , optics , geology , nonlinear system , materials science , astronomy , oceanography , quantum mechanics , detector , metallurgy
Two types of large electric field signatures, individual pulses and pulse trains, were observed on a sounding rocket launched into the afternoon auroral zone on January 21, 1982. The typical electric fields in the individual pulses were 50 mV/m or larger, aligned mostly parallel to B, and the corresponding potentials were at least 100 mV ( kT ∼0.3 eV). A lower limit of 15 km/sec can be set on the velocity of these structures, indicating that they were not ion acoustic double layers. The pulse trains, each consisting of on the order of 100 pulses, were observed in close association with intense plasma frequency waves. This correlation is consistent with the interpretation of these trains as Langmuir solitons. The pulse trains correlate better with the intensity of the field‐aligned currents than with the energetic electron flux.