Effect of finite current channel width on the collisional ion cyclotron instability

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The effect of a finite transverse width, magnetic field-aligned current on the collisional ion cyclotron instability is studied. It is found that a finite current width has a stabilizing influence on the instability and for sufficiently narrow current channels can stabilize the instability. The results are discussed in the context of auroral ionosphere. For example, for typical F region parameters it is found that for wavelengths k y ϱ s ∼ 0.5, the stabilizing effect of the channel width starts to become important for L w ≲ 25 ϱ s ( L w is the current channel width, ϱ s is the ion Larmor radius based on the electron temperature, and k is the transverse wavenumber).