Internal gravitational waves in a plasma sheet.
Abstract
The paper presents a theoretical study of magnetically guided waves at the diffuse internal boundary of the plasma sheet. The wave velocity along the magnetic field is close to the Alfven velocity (amounting to 1000 k/s), and the group velocity across the magnetic field in the magnetosphere has both radial and azimuthal components. The longitudinal magnetic component in the wave is several times greater than the radial one. If the plasma density decreases with distance from the earth more slowly than according to the r exp -2 law, the wave can experience total internal reflection in the magnetosphere. This may be connected with the observed absence of pulsations at the earth surface at the time they are present in the magnetosphere. The waves are also connected with the propagation of bays of auroral riometric absorption in the east-west as well as north-south directions.
- Publication:
-
Geomagnetism and Aeronomy
- Pub Date:
- April 1986
- Bibcode:
- 1986Ge&Ae..26..270S
- Keywords:
-
- Gravity Waves;
- Internal Waves;
- Magnetic Field Configurations;
- Plasma Layers;
- Plasma-Electromagnetic Interaction;
- Earth Magnetosphere;
- Plasma Density;
- Propagation Velocity;
- Wave Propagation;
- Wave Reflection