Abstract
The effect of ion-electron collisions on the motion of an ion cloud in a magnetoactive plasma immersed in a uniform external electric field E is examined. It is shown that ion-electron collisions reduce the velocity of the ion cloud by a factor which increases with the maximum initial plasma density N. The deformation of the ion cloud which results from the dependence of the fluid velocity on the plasma density n is examined. It is shown that a discontinuity in n occurs after a time t c ∞ ( EN) −1. The equation of the path of the discontinuity in the x− t plane is derived and approximate expressions giving the magnitude of the discontinuity as a function of time are obtained. The width of the discontinuity is estimated by allowing for diffusion. The present results show that when ion-electron collisions are taken into account higher estimates of the ionospheric electric field strength are obtained from observations of the motion of artificial ion clouds.
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