Lectures

NEVF117 – Plasma waves (2/1, C+Ex)

Ondřej Santolík


Dispersion relation, wave modes. Cold-plasma model. Waves in a magnetised plasma. Hydromagnetic approximation. Kinetic approach, linear instabilities. Examples of different types of waves observed in space plasmas.

  • Introduction to the theory of waves in plasmas, dispersion relations, characteristic frequencies, wave modes. Approximation of cold plasmas. Waves in magnetized plasmas. Resonances, cutoffs, resonance cone.
  • Wave-normal surfaces. Phase relations and polarizations CMA diagram. Energy density and group velocity. Analysis of wave propagation in inhomogeneous media.
  • Solutions to the dispersion relation in cold plasmas: Alfven modes, ion-cyclotron waves. Whistler mode, Z mode and free space modes. Waves in multi-ion plasmas.
  • Hydromagnetic approximation, MHD theory, slow and fast magnetosonic waves. Kinetic approach. Landau damping. Linear instabilities. Beam modes, Bernstein modes.
  • Type II and type III radio emissions in the solar wind. Lion roars. Waves in the equatorial region of the Earth's magnetosphere. Whistlers, equatorial noise, chorus and plasmaspheric hiss.
  • Waves in the auroral region. Auroral kilometric radiation, auroral hiss, and ion cyclotron harmonic radiation.