The Cyclotron-Soliton Model of Terrestrial Kilometric Radiation

Abstract

Recently, Istomin, Petviashvili, and Pokhotelov, ¹ referred to in what follows as IPP (we must warn the reader that there are a number of minor errors in this paper), have developed a theory to explain the terrestrial or auroral kilometric radiation (AKR). We refer to IPP and a paper by Gurnett² for a survey of the experimental data. The IPP model has been analyzed in considerable detail by Cole and Pokhotelov,³ who found that the model could explain many features of the AKR quantitatively and especially the fact that the power in the AKR is roughly 10% of the power in the auroral electron beams which excite the plasma turbulence in the region where the AKR originates. The IPP model uses the fact that the electron beams will excite shortwavelength electrostatic cyclotron waves which will be concentrated in solitonlike structures—called cyclotron solitons. Energy will be pumped into these solitons until the electric field in the soliton reaches a certain value. The oscillating charges in the structure will then produce electromagnetic radiation at twice the gyrofrequency which in the region where the AKR is produced corresponds to kilometric radiation.