Energy exchange rate for the equatorial electrojet: Test of the model of two‐stream processes that includes thermal corrections

Abstract

The experiment of Balsley and Farley (1971) in Jicamarca, Peru has been the only multi(3)‐frequency investigation of the equatorial electrojet. The radar was operated sequentially at frequencies of 16.25, 49.92 and 146.25 MHz and probed the same ionospheric volume. The most prominent feature of these observations was the increase in the phase velocity Vph of Farley‐Buneman (FB) waves with increasing radar frequency while the classical fluid theory gives Vph independent on their wavelength and the simple kinetic theory accounts for only a small increase in Vph. Our recent theory predicts a wavenumber dependence of the FB wave phase velocity. The rate of increase depends on the altitude of the electrojet and seems to match the observed wave behavior. The most important byproduct of this case study is our conclusion that the energy exchange rate in inelastic electron‐neutral interactions is about two‐to‐three times higher that it has been assumed in estimates.