The incoherent scattering of dust plasma produced by solid rocket exhaust

Abstract

When the space shuttle passes though the ionosphere, the plume provides a high-speed neutral gas compared to the surrounding plasma. Simultaneously, the exhaust molecules exchange charge with the ambient O+ ions in the ionosphere, producing a ring-beam ion distribution(bump-on-tail distribution), which has an important effect on incoherent scattering radar(ISR) spectrum. Based on the theory of incoherent scattering of dust plasma, the incoherent scattering characteristics of the bump-on-tail distribution in the early stage of solid rocket exhaust are simulated. The influences of dust component and plasma distribution on the incoherent scattering spectrum are analyzed, and the mechanism of the influence is initially explained. The results show that the addition of dust enhances the ion spectrum, and the influence of distribution function on the ion spectrum is closely related to the resonant frequency of the generated plasma. The research on ISR characteristics of the plasma distributions is important to understand the physics of both nature and artificial plasma.