ELF plasma waves in hot and cold plasma fluxes observed by Prognoz-8 in the magnetospheric tail

Abstract

We present Prognoz-8 observations of low-frequency plasma waves (2-105 Hz) associated with plasma fluxes near the outer boundary of the plasma sheet. These plasma fluxes were different from the regular plasma sheet boundary layer and consisted of tailward flowing warm proton and cold oxygen beams accompanied by rather cold electrons (Te less than 100 eV). Observed plasma characteristics were used in the numerical solution of the dispersion relation for the ion-beam acoustic instability. Detailed analysis shows that this instability can be a source of observed emissions at frequencies up to 25 Hz.