Premium
Plasma instabilities in the magnetosphere
Author(s) -
Hasegawa Akira
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
reviews of geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 8.087
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1944-9208
pISSN - 8755-1209
DOI - 10.1029/rg009i003p00703
Subject(s) - magnetosphere , plasma , physics , instability , anisotropy , two stream instability , astrophysical plasma , computational physics , atomic physics , mechanics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
An introductory review of theories of plasma instabilities in the magnetosphere is presented. Part A is a review of theories of plasma instabilities that are relevant to magnetospheric plasmas. Instabilities arising from velocity‐distribution anisotropies, such as a pitch‐angle anisotropy or the presence of beams, as well as instabilities from nonuniform distributions of plasmas and magnetic fields, are discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on the effect of a mixture of a cold plasma in a high‐β plasma. Part B is a summary of works related to actual plasma instabilities in the magnetosphere. In view of the observed plasma parameters, it is shown that the magnetosphere is rather stable against most macroscopic instabilities, and its dynamics are predominantly governed by microscopic instabilities.