Plasma Structures and Turbulence (PSAT) Workshop

Evgeny Mishin, MIT/Millstone Hill, evm@haystack.mit.edu
Fairview, 4:00-6:00
Thursday, June 21, 2001

We plan to discuss observations and theory/modeling of PSAT in the ionosphere/thermosphere focusing on their effects in the momentum and energy transfer in the M/I/T system. Possible topics of discussion will include (but are not limited to):

1. Are there any well-established signatures of PSAT in the perturbed ionosphere?
2. Does plasma turbulence produce any appreciable effects in the dynamics and energy balance in the ionosphere/thermosphere system? Can it compete with the standard Joule heating and ion neutral drag?
3. Are there any indications of plasma turbulence in the stormtime subauroral phenomena (trough/SAID/SAR arcs)? If yes, how significant is its role?
4. Recent achievements in explaining the formation of ionosphere plasma irregularities.

It is supposed that several invited speakers will each present a concise assessment of a specific topic (for 50% of the total workshop time), which will be followed by discussion. The invited speakers are:

• Yakov Dimant, Farley-Buneman instability and electron heating
• Gurudas Ganguli, Wave and Joule heating in the structured ionosphere
• Parvez Guzdar, Turbulence and Transport in High latitude Plasma Patches
• J.-P. St Maurice, What we think we know about plasma turbulence in the ionosphere. A theorist's biased view of observations
• Michael Ruohoniemi, Properties of ionospheric plasma instability and turbulence-like variability in HF radar backscatter
• Anatoly V. Streltsov, Interaction of Alfven waves with a turbulence above the auroral ionosphere

Everyone interested in these problems, which may be less familiar to the CEDAR community, are welcome to participate.