Ion acoustic wave instabilities and nonlinear structures associated with field-aligned flows in the F-region ionosphere

Abstract

It is shown that the inhomogeneous field-aligned flow of heavier ions into the stationary plasma of the upper ionosphere produces very low frequency (of the order of a few Hz) electrostatic unstable ion acoustic waves (IAWs). This instability is an oscillatory instability unlike D'Angelo's purely growing mode. The growth rate of the ion acoustic wave (IAW) corresponding to heavier ions is due to shear flow and is larger than the ion Landau damping. However, the ion acoustic waves corresponding to non-flowing lighter ions are Landau damped. It is found that even if D'Angelo's instability condition is satisfied, the unstable mode develops its real frequency in this coupled system. Hence, the shear flow of one type of ions in a bi-ion plasma system produces ion acoustic wave activity. If the density non-uniformity is taken into account, then the drift wave becomes unstable. The coupled nonlinear equations for stationary ions “a,” flowing ions “b,” and inertialess electrons are also solved using the small amplitude limit. The solutions predict the existence of the order of a few kilometers electric field structures in the form of solitons and vortices, which is in agreement with the satellite observations.