Beam-plasma discharge in the ionosphere during active experiments

A model of the beam-plasma discharge with regards to active experiments with injections of powerful electron beams in the ionosphere was developed. Main features of the beam-plasma interaction are spacecraft charging, the plasma turbulence generation, fast increase of the ambient plasma density, heating and acceleration of the background electrons. These processes collectively determine the propagation of the injected electron beam into the ambient ionospheric plasma. It is well known that there are some peculiarities of beam-plasma interaction was observed during electron beam injection into ionospheric plasma. Among them are luminosity of the near rocket region, intensive high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, anomalous scattering of the beam electrons near a rocket, intensive optical and infrared radiation from the discharge region. Two-dimensional electromagnetic particle simulations have been carried out in order to investigate the injection and transport of the dense electron beam from the spacecraft into ionospheric plasma. The obtained main characteristics of the beam-ionospheric plasma interaction permit to explain some pecularities of the active experiments.