Effect of charged dust grains on the electrojet instabilities

Abstract

The Farley-Buneman and Gradient Drift instabilities have been investigated using a fluid model, in a partially ionized dusty electrojet region in which dust and neutral particles constitute a uniform static background. The effects of dissociative electron-ion recombination and dust charge fluctuation on the instabilities also have been taken into account. The electron-ion dynamics are considered to derive the perturbed densities which further lead to the generalized dispersion relation. The dispersion relation describes the propagation of electrojet instabilities having frequency within dust ion acoustic range in a magnetized partially ionized dusty plasma. The dispersion relation is separately solved numerically and analytically for the two values of anisotropy parameters which correspond to the two different altitudes in the electrojet region. It is found that Gradient drift instability is unstable at a much longer wavelength as compared to Farley-Buneman instability both with or without dust. At lower altitudes(90 km) the increase of negative charge on dust decreases the threshold electron drift velocity for Farley-Buneman instability while it shows the opposite behavior at higher altitudes(100 km). A much lower electron drift velocity is required to excite the Gradient drift instability than the Farley-Buneman instability at both altitudes. The dissociative electron-ion recombination damps both modes much more than the dust charge fluctuation. A significant changes in threshold drift velocity is observed for the Farley-Buneman mode as compared to the Gradient Drift mode due to the two main damping mechanisms. The present analysis is applicable in the lower ionospheric electrojet region where meteoric ablation processes are dominant.