The Earth's Plasmasphere

by J. F. Lemaire , K. I. Gringauz , With contributions by D. L. Carpenter , V. Bassolo

• ISBN13: 9780521430913
• ISBN10: 0521430917
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first monograph to describe the historical development of ideas concerning the plasmasphere by the pioneering researchers themselves. The plasmasphere is a cold thermal plasma cloud encircling the Earth, terminating abruptly at a radial distance of 30,000 km over a sharp discontinuity known as the plasmapause. The volume commences with an account of the difficulties met in USSR by Gringauz to publish his early discoveries from Soviet rocket measurements, and the contemporaneous breakthroughs by Carpenter in the USA from ground-based whistler measurements. The authors then bring our picture of the plasmasphere up-to-date by presenting experimental and observational results of the past three decades, and mathematical and physical theories proposed to explain its formation. The volume will be invaluable for researchers in space physics, and will also appeal to those interested in the history of science.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(3)
Foreword	xii	(5)
Introduction	xvii
Chapter 1 Discovery of the plasmasphere and initial studies of its properties	1	(39)
1.1 Introduction	1	(1)
1.2 First plasmaspheric research in the USSR	2	(12)
1.3 The discovery of the `knee' effect from whistlers	14	(26)
Chapter 2 Electromagnetic sounding of the plasmasphere	40	(68)
2.1 Introduction	40	(1)
2.2 Initial results	41	(1)
2.3 Plasmasphere dynamics	42	(28)
2.4 Coupling of the plasmapause and plasmasphere regions to the ionosphere	70	(6)
2.5 Other aspects of plasmasphere structure and dynamics	76	(18)
2.6 Plasma wave observations and the plasmasphere	94	(14)
Chapter 3 Plasmasphere measurements from spacecraft	108	(51)
3.1 Introduction	108	(2)
3.2 Experimental results from the decade 1960-70	110	(9)
3.3 Experiments and results from the decade 1970-80	119	(24)
3.4 Plasmaspheric measurements during the decade 1980-90	143	(12)
3.5 The latest results	155	(4)
Chapter 4 A global description of the plasmasphere	159	(62)
4.1 Introduction	159	(1)
4.2 The ionosphere as a source and sink for plasmaspheric particles	159	(12)
4.3 Thermal structure of the plasmasphere	171	(6)
4.4 Pitch angle distributions	177	(5)
4.5 Ion composition	182	(4)
4.6 Plasma density distribution	186	(5)
4.7 The shape of the equatorial plasmapause	191	(4)
4.8 The plasmapause region	195	(12)
4.9 Plasma density irregularities outside and inside the plasmasphere	207	(5)
4.10 Magnetic and electric field distributions	212	(7)
4.11 Concluding remarks	219	(2)
Chapter 5 Theoretical aspects related to the plasmasphere	221	(89)
5.1 Introduction	221	(1)
5.2 Field-aligned and equatorial plasma density distributions	222	(27)
5.3 Equatorial plasma distribution	249	(5)
5.4 Plasma convection and interchange motion	254	(16)
5.5 Theories for the formation of the plasmaspause	270	(40)
Epilogue	310	(2)
References	312	(35)
Index	347