CYCLOTRON AMPLIFICATION OF GEOMAGNETIC MICROPULSATIONS PC1 IN MAGNETOSPHERE

A numerical analysis of cyclotron instabilities is carried out by computing the dispersion relation for a three component cold plasma-beam system. Rates of growth and damping for various values of the stream density are calculated from the dispersion relation. The rates of growth and damping increase monotonically as the number density of the proton stream increases. It is found that the frequencies at the rates of maximum growth and the damping decrease slightly to lower frequencies and a sharp peak at these frequencies becomes blunt. The minimum e-folding times of an ion cyclotron wave for (a) σs = 10-4, σi = 10-2 and (b) σs = 10-1, σi = 10-2 are about 3·84 and 0·16 sec respectively in the vicinity of the equatorial plane at 6 Re, where σs and σi are the ratios of the beam density Ns and the helium ion (H6+) density Ni to the total positive ions in the plasma-beam system. © 1969.