Dissipative instabilities in a mesospheric plasma with the aerosol charging processes taken into account

Abstract

We consider dissipative instabilities of a flow of large aerosol particles as a possible mechanism for generation of electric-field and charged-particle density irregularities in the middle atmosphere. A dispersion equation describing the properties of the spectral component of a quasistatic electric field with allowance for the aerosol charging inertia and external stationary electric field is obtained. The equation is used to study characteristics of two possible instabilities, namely, the instability of a dust-acoustic mode and the instability of an additional low-frequency mode stimulated by the charging inertia. Dependences of the growth rates of both instabilities on the parameters of the medium and the external stationary electric field are obtained. Quantitative estimates for the parameters of the aerosol, ion, and electron components and external factors that are necessary for the excitation of instabilities in the region of the existence of summer polar mesospheric echo, as well as those for spatial scales of unstable perturbations, are given.