On some electromagnetic phenomena in the tether magnetoplasma cloud

Summary

The tethered satellite system (TSS) will be accompanied by a variety of electromagnetic phenomena. An independent interconnected formation, a «tethered magnetoplasma cloud» (TMC), moving in space along the orbit of TSS, at an altitude of about 300 km, will be created. This time-dependent cloud will be a very complicated inhomogeneous formation including electromagnetic oscillations and waves of different type. Some of these waves will be observed on the Earth's surface. Rarefiel regions of the magnetoplasma behind, and dense regions in front of the shuttle orbiter (SO) and the subsatellite (SS) will arise. The neutral nitrogen beam ejected by the thruster becomes an ion beam on the day-light part of the orbit. Its energy is much greater than the local thermal energy. Instabilities of different kind as well as diffusion and recombination effects are expected to accompany the interaction of these beams with the surrounding plasma. The electron beams will produce other types of instabilities. By the electrons precessing along the magnetic-field lines, a current (5·10³V, 0.5 A) should be induced in the 20th km length conducting tether. It will be closed at the bottom of the ionosphere. This huge magnetic loop, so-called «phantom loop» (PL), should accompany the tether system along its orbit. The length of this «tether electromagnetic tail» (TEMT) is about 200 km, its magnetic moment will be about 10¹³ A·cm². Alfvén waves and nonlinear effects of heating type may be produced by this loop along the magnetic-field lines. «Strings» of hot plasma may accompany the tether system.