Excitation of electrostatic wave instability by dc electric field in Earth's magnetoplasma

Abstract

The dispersion relation for electrostatic wave propagation in an anisotropic warm collisionless magnetoplasma, in the presence of weak parallel (d c) electric field, has been derived analytically. An expression for the growth rate of the electrostatic wave and the marginal stability condition are also derived. The modifications introduced in the growth rate by the electric field and the temperature anisotropy are discussed using plasma parameters observed in the magnetospheric region (4 < L < 10). The effect of the electric field is to increase the growth rate of the electrostatic waves at different electron cyclotron harmonics, whereas the effect of the temperature anisotropy is to decrease the growth rate. The presence of parallel electric field may excite the electrostatic emissions at different electron cyclotron harmonics. The most unstable band of wave frequencies obtained with the aid of computations lies between 5 kHz and 10 kHz. These wave frequencies are well within the experimentally observed frequencies of electrostatic emissions. Therefore such a study would not only explain the observed satellite features of the electrostatic wave emissions but would also account for the diagnostics of the magnetospheric plasma parameters.