The Impact of Turbulence on the Ionosphere and Magnetosphere

Abstract

An important property associated with turbulence in plasmas and fluids is anomalous transport. Plasma, being a good conductor, can in addition be affected by turbulence causing an anomalous resistivity that can significantly exceed its classical counterpart. While turbulent transport may be adequately described in configuration space, some aspects of the anomalous resistivity are best accounted for in phase space. Kinetic phenomena like electron and ion phase space vortices can thus act as obstacles for the free flow of slow charged particles. Plasma instabilities and large amplitude plasma waves are candidates for contributions to the anomalous resistivity by generating such structures. Langmuir waves can be relevant, but also others, such as upper- as well as lower-hybrid waves in magnetized plasmas. Often these anomalous resistivity effects can be small, but due to the large spatial and temporal scales involved in space plasmas, planetary ionosphere and magnetosphere in particular, even such moderate effects can be important. This mini-review is discussing elements of the description of plasma turbulence with particular attention to wave phenomena that contribute to anomalous resistivity and diffusion. Turbulence effects can have relevance for space weather phenomena as well, where ground based and airborne activities relying on for instance Global Positioning and Global Navigation Satellite Systems are influenced by plasma conditions in geospace.