Simulation of high‐speed (orbital) releases of electron attachment materials in the ionosphere

Abstract

The dynamics of ionospheric plasma irregularities produced by the release of electron attachment materials at orbital velocities across the geomagnetic field is studied. A two‐dimensional electrostatic fluid model which includes electron attachment and mutual neutralization chemistry, self‐consistent electric fields, and three‐species transport is developed. Numerical simulations are performed to study the behavior at early and at late times after the release. At early times, of the order of or less than the attachment material neutral collision time, the negative ion cloud produced by the release may structure owing to the shear in the E×B velocity within the cloud. At high altitudes the cloud may bifurcate and form vortices on the back. At lower altitudes where ion‐neutral collisional effects dominate, this structuring is suppressed. At late times, after a plasma depletion has formed due to neutralization chemistry, the cloud structures by the E×B interchange instability. Depending on the release altitude, the depletion structures by the collisional or inertial limit of this instability.