Cavitating Langmuir Turbulence in the Terrestrial Aurora

B. Isham (1) , M. T. Rietveld (2) , P. Guio (3) , F. R. E. Forme (4) , T. Grydeland (5) , E. Mjølhus (6)

1 Interamerican University
2 EISCAT Scientific Association
3 Department of Physics and Astronomy [UCL London]
4 CESR - Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements
5 Dept. of Physics and Technology
6 Faculty of Science

Langmuir cavitons have been artificially produced in the earth's ionosphere, but evidence of naturally-occurring cavitation has been elusive. By measuring and modeling the spectra of electrostatic plasma modes, we show that natural cavitating, or strong, Langmuir turbulence does occur in the ionosphere, via a process in which a beam of auroral electrons drives Langmuir waves, which in turn produce cascading Langmuir and ion-acoustic excitations and cavitating Langmuir turbulence.

Mots clés: Physics; Space Physics

Domaines: Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]

B. Isham, M. T. Rietveld, P. Guio, F. R. E. Forme, T. Grydeland, et al.. Cavitating Langmuir Turbulence in the Terrestrial Aurora. Physical Review Letters, 2012, 108, pp.105003. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.105003⟩. ⟨hal-00557486⟩