Alfvén wave far field from steady-current tethers

We analyze the Alfvén wave signature left behind in the ionosphere by orbiting insulated tethers operating as thrusters or generators with steady currents. Using a recent description of tether radiation to determine the far field, we show that, at their leading edges, the Alfvén wings have an Airy f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research, Washington, DC Washington, DC, 1997-01, Vol.102 (A7), p.14625-14630
Main Authors: Sanmartín, Juan R., Estes, Robert D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Other topics in aeronomy and magnetospheric physics
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Summary:We analyze the Alfvén wave signature left behind in the ionosphere by orbiting insulated tethers operating as thrusters or generators with steady currents. Using a recent description of tether radiation to determine the far field, we show that, at their leading edges, the Alfvén wings have an Airy function crosswise structure. The field amplitude falls off weakly as the inverse cube root of the distance along the wave front. The front itself, which carries a negligible fraction of the power radiated as Alfven waves, broadens proportionally to the cube root of that distance. We show that collisional decay becomes important at about 103 km along the front. For tethers longer than about 2 km, the top and bottom structures (“wings”) are fully disjoint.
ISSN:0148-0227
2156-2202
DOI:10.1029/97JA00346