Nuclear Burst Induced Shock Wave Modelling of Energetic Electron Injection into the Magnetosphere: Application of Streaming Plasma Instabilities to Shock Structures.

摘要

A parallel shock wave structure is modelled as a region of interpenetrating streams of cold unshocked and hot shocked ions. The authors' liner dispersion theory predicts that unstable whistlers can stand and therefore grow to large amplitude at the leading edge of weak and intermediate strength shocks. Magnetosonic instabilities and their role in the structure of perpendicular shock waves were also studied. Since these instabilities are not stationary in the shock layer, they cannot play a principal role in the structure. The linear dispersion analysis of parallel shock structures has been used to estimate the fluxes of energetic electrons injected into the magnetosphere due to multiple nuclear bursts. It has been found that fluxes of 20 kev electrons two orders of magnitude larger than those due to magnetospheric substorms might be expected to occur for times as long as 30 s. These could play a significant role in charging synchronous orbit spacecraft. (Author)