Ion-Sound Waves during the Interaction of Meteoroid Tails with the Earth’s Ionosphere

Abstract

The ion-acoustic instability in the tails of meteoroids as a result of their passage through the Earth’s atmosphere is studied and the conditions under which it develops are given. The development of this instability occurs as a result of the relative motion of the plasma of meteoroid tails and the dusty plasma of the Earth’s ionosphere. Dust, in turn, creates conditions when this instability can develop in a situation of approximately equal ion and electron temperatures, which is observed in the plasma–dust system under consideration. The mechanism of the excitation of ion-sound waves as a result of the development of the ion-acoustic instability in meteoroid tails is shown. The growth rates of the ion-acoustic instability and the characteristic times of its development are found. It is shown that the instability has time to develop during the time of passage of a meteoroid body in the Earth’s atmosphere and the formation of a meteoroid trail, which has values much greater than the time of development of ion-acoustic instability in the system under consideration. The wave vectors and velocities of meteoric bodies, at which the development of the ion-acoustic instability is expected, are found. It is noted that the instability can reach a nonlinear regime at possible large wave amplitudes.