Stabilization of the Two-Stream Instability in the Equatorial Electrojet

Tetsuya Sato

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.28.732

Stabilization of the Two-Stream Instability in the Equatorial Electrojet

Tetsuya Sato

Phys. Rev. Lett. 28, 732 – Published 20 March 1972

Abstract

Stabilization of the two-stream instability in a weakly ionized plasma (equatorial electrojet) is studied using fluid equations. It is shown that a macroscopic quasilinear process acts to reduce the electron flow to a threshold level (ion sound speed), thereby stabilizing the instability. This result gives an explanation of constant Doppler shifts of radar echoes in the electrojet. It is further shown that the saturation level of the fluctuations agrees with that of observations.

Received 29 November 1971

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.28.732

Authors & Affiliations

Tetsuya Sato^*

Aeronomy Laboratory, Environmental Research Laboratories, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado 80302

^*National Research Council-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Postdoctoral Resident Research Associate. On leave of absence from the Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.