Nonlinear Coherent Structures, Microbursts and Turbulence

Abstract:

Nonlinear waves are found everywhere, in fluids, atmosphere, laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas. The interplay of nonlinear effects, dispersion and dissipation in the medium can lead to a variety of nonlinear waves and turbulence. Two cases of coherent nonlinear waves: chorus and electrostatic solitary waves (ESWs) and their impact on modifying the plasma medium are discussed. Chorus is a right-hand, circularly-polarized electromagnetic plane wave. Dayside chorus is a bursty emission composed of rising frequency “elements” with duration of ~0.1 to 1.0 s. Each element is composed of coherent subelements with durations of ~1 to 100 ms or more. The cyclotron resonant interaction between energetic electrons and the coherent chorus waves is studied. An expression for the pitch angle transport due to this interaction is derived considering a Gaussian distribution for the time duration of the chorus elements. The rapid pitch scattering can provide an explanation for the ionospheric microbursts of ~0.1 to 0.5 s in bremsstrahlung x-rays formed by ~10–100 keV precipitating electrons. On the other hand, the ESWs are observed in the electric field component parallel to the background magnetic field, and are usually bipolar or tripolar. Generation of coherent ESWs has been explained in terms of nonlinear fluid models of ion- and electron-acoustic solitons and double layers (DLs) based on Sagdeev pseudopotential technique. Fast Fourier transform of electron- and ion-acoustic solitons/DLs produces broadband wave spectra which can explain the properties of the electrostatic turbulence observed in the magnetosheath and plasma sheet boundary layer, and in the solar wind, respectively.