Whistler wave propagation and whistler wave antenna radiation resistance measurements

Whistler waves are a common feature of ionospheric and magnetospheric plasmas. While the linear behavior of these waves is generally well understood, a number of interesting observations indicate that much remains to be learned about the nonlinear characteristics of the mode. For example, in space, very low frequency (VLF) emissions triggered by whistler modes launched from ground-based transmitters have been observed. Emission is assumed to come from transverse currents formed by counterstreaming electrons that are phase bunched by the triggering signal. In the laboratory, it has been shown that with increasing amplitude of the driving signal applied to an antenna, the whistler mode radiation pattern forms a duct with diameter of the order of the parallel wavelength. The ducted waves were observed to propagate virtually undamped along the length of the plasma column. These observations have prompted an Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) Space Physics Simulation Chamber study of whistler wave dynamics. The goals are to investigate whistler wave ducting, self-focusing, and amplification, and to study nonlinear whistler-plasma interactions.