Space Plasma Instabilities

Abstract

Space storms are extreme manifestations of space plasma instabilities. Onset of a solar flare or a substorm expansion are examples of complex phenomena involving rapid perturbations and system reconfigurations both at macroscopic and microscopic levels. Furthermore, the plasma waves discussed in previous chapters do not appear without reason. They are driven either by an external “antenna” or by local instabilities somewhere in the system. As there are several plasma wave modes, there is also a rich flora of different plasma instabilities. The wave phenomena reach far beyond the family of linear wave modes. A growing instability may develop to a nonlinear regime and cannot any more be described in terms of normal modes. Shocks, to be discussed in Chap. 11, are examples of strongly nonlinear wave phenomena.