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Koons & Pongratz 1981
Koons, H.C. and Pongratz, M.B. (1981). Electric fields and plasma waves resulting from a barium injection experiment. Journal of Geophysical Research 86: doi: 10.1029/JA086iA03p01437. issn: 0148-0227.

A shaped-charge, barium plasma injection experiment was performed in June 1976 from the DOE Kauai test facility. The rocket payload contained seven shaped charges, a sevenfold larger package than the typical payloads employed in previous barium plasma injections conducted in this program. An attitude control system oriented the injection perpendicular to the local geomagnetic field. The injection altitude was 450 km. The second-stage motor section contained a payload to measure dc and ac electric fields using a 5-m-long, tip-to-tip dual spherical probe antenna. The ac electric field frequency response was from 100 Hz to 12 kHz. The dc channel responds up to 160 Hz. Shortly after the detonation, the dc electric field was parallel to the geomagnetic field. A few seconds later the measured electric field was the v¿B field induced by the motion of the antenna through the plasma. A variety of plasma waves were detected for approximately 20 s following the injection. The initial impulse in the dc channel was measured to be 115 mV/m. The injection generated barium cyclotron waves at 3.4, 7.2, and 10.6 Hz. The barium gyrofrequency at the altitude of the injection was 3.3 Hz. The initial amplitude at 3.4 Hz was 25 mV/m peak-to-peak. These waves were evident in the data for approximately 6 s. Between 3 and 8 after the explosion, band-limited noise was intermittently present between 1.6 and 3.2 kHz. These emissions were lower-hybrid-resonance emissions in a barium plasma. The instability responsible for these emissions is tentatively identified as the modified two-stream instability. Wide-band noise with a decreasing intensity as a function of frequency in the band from 100 Hz to 5 kHz was present from 4 to 30 s following the explosion. The intensity maximized when the antenna was most nearly parallel to the geomagnetic field. This suggests that the waves were ion acoustic waves. Highly structured emission occurred between 500 Hz for several seconds beginning 17 s after the explosion. The wave mode responsible for these structure emissions has not yet been identified.

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Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
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American Geophysical Union
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