Understanding and Harnessing the Dual Electrostatic/Electromagnetic Character of Plasma Turbulence in the Near‐Earth Space Environment

Abstract

The ability to morph electrostatic plasma turbulence into electromagnetic has promising applications, including the possibility of actively influencing the near-Earth plasma state, aka the space weather. This dual (electrostatic/electromagnetic) nature is a fundamental property of plasma turbulence, which has not been well explored but could explain many phenomena including the formation of a resonant cavity that can amplify the turbulence energy. The upcoming Space Measurement of A Rocket-Released Turbulence (SMART) mission is designed to understand the evolution of plasma turbulence and the nonlocal consequences of its dual nature. This includes the flow of energy into all possible wavelengths, as well as the transport of energy over a large geographical volume. The resulting energy redistribution in both waves and particles in an extended geographical volume creates a unique electromagnetic environment, which is important for space weather.

Strong Amplification of ELF/VLF Signals in Space Using Neutral Gas Injections From a Satellite Rocket Engine

“…Whistler modes that propagate in the ionosphere and magnetosphere have been excited by ground based transmitters such as SIPLE Antarctica (Helliwell, 1977), the world's high power VLF navigation transmitters (Ma et al., 2017; Meredith et al., 2019; Parrot et al., 2007; Ross et al., 2019; Záhlava et al., 2018; S. Zhao, Zhou, et al., 2019), and the high power HF facilities in Arecibo, Puerto Rico (Pradipta et al., 2007) and HAARP, Alaska (Cohen & Golkowski, 2013; Golkowski et al., 2019), or modulation of energetic electron beams on the Space Shuttle (Carlsten et al., 2019). Three current experimental efforts (Borovsky & Delzanno, 2019) for space‐based VLF wave generation are supported in the United States by (1) the Air Force Research Laboratory with the DSX large dipole antenna operational from June 2019 to transmit VLF waves in space (Scherbarth et al., 2009), (2) the Los Alamos National Laboratory with a VLF precipitation experiment scheduled for April 2021 to launch the Beam Plasma Interactions Experiment (Beam‐PIE) with electron beam generation on a sounding Rocket (Carlsten et al., 2019), and (3) the Naval Research Laboratory with an injection of 1.5 kg of barium to form hypersonic ions that are converted into lower‐hybrid, whistler or magnetosonic waves (Ganguli et al., 2015, 2019). Alternate techniques for whistler mode generation are being studied because these waves are difficult to radiate with conventional antennas where the free space wavelengths (10–1,000 km) are so much longer than a practically realizable vertical monopole antenna, and the radiation efficiency is exceedingly small.…”

“…The electron beam system (Beam‐PIE) requires flying a particle accelerator with only a fraction of the payload mass devoted to the electron beam itself. Finally, the ion beam chemical release of barium (Ganguli et al., 2019) uses thermite vaporization system that is typically 10 times more massive that the amount of barium gas released.…”

On the rate of energy deposition by an ion ring velocity beam

“…[1][2][3][4] In particular, the upcoming Space Measurement of A Rocket-Released Turbulence (SMART) mission is designed to understand the evolution of ion beam generated plasma turbulence and its nonlocal electrostatic/electromagnetic nature. 5,6 The initial source of energy in the beam-plasma system in the SMART experiment is the kinetic energy of photo-ionized barium (Ba) neutrals, transversely injected into the ambient magnetic field and eventually forming a ring-shaped drifting Maxwellian distribution in velocity space. To anticipate the outcome of space experiments, it is important to be able to estimate the amount of energy deposited by an ion ring velocity beam into the generation of electrostatic lower hybrid waves.…”

Strong Amplification of ELF/VLF Signals in Space Using Neutral Gas Injections from a Satellite Rocket Engine

“…Delzanno, 2019) for space-based VLF wave generation are supported in the United States by (1) the Air Force Research Laboratory with the DSX large dipole antenna operational from June 2019 to transmit VLF waves in space (Scherbarth et al, 2009), (2) the Los Alamos National Laboratory with a VLF precipitation experiment scheduled for April 2021 to launch the Beam Plasma Interactions Experiment (Beam-PIE) with electron beam generation on a sounding Rocket (Carlsten et al, 2019), and (3) the Naval Research Laboratory with an injection of 1.5 kg of barium to form hypersonic ions that are converted into lower-hybrid, whistler or magnetosonic waves (Ganguli et al, 2015(Ganguli et al, , 2019. Alternate techniques for whistler mode generation are being studied because these waves are difficult to radiate with conventional antennas where the free space wavelengths (10-1,000 km) are so much longer than a practically realizable vertical monopole antenna, and the radiation efficiency is exceedingly small.…”

“…The electron beam system (Beam-PIE) requires flying a particle accelerator with only a fraction of the payload mass devoted to the electron beam itself. Finally, the ion beam chemical release of barium (Ganguli et al, 2019) uses thermite vaporization system that is typically 10 times more massive that the amount of barium gas released.…”