Electron-neutral collisions induced by artificially produced VLF waves: Radiation belt remediation

粒子与波的相互作用是自然界(例如太阳日冕的波粒加热)和实验室(例如磁约束托卡马克内等离子体的波粒加热)中发生的普遍物理过程。高功率无线电发射机的发展意味着现在可以沿着磁通量管发射甚低频信号，目的是在近地空间人为地诱导这种波-粒子相互作用。这项提议概述了一种称为辐射带补救的方法，通过使用这种甚低频信号人为地刺激电子-中性碰撞，减少辐射带中的高能电子数量。辐射带内不断变化的高能电子流量对轨道硬件是危险的，例如商业通信卫星，以及许多飞越该地区的科学和军事卫星。如果成功，所提出的研究将具有重大的实际应用，以及回答紧迫的物理问题。成功将提供一种手段，有可能保护航天器和仪器免受：(A)自然产生的粒子通量升高(例如，由于太阳驱动的变化和现场粒子加速，已知这是造成偶尔的卫星故障的原因)；或(B)人为行动造成的极高通量(例如，高空核爆大量增加粒子通量，肯定会损坏穿越辐射带的卫星)。据估计，仅对美国政府卫星的辐射带干扰每年造成的损失就超过1亿美元(2000年以前)，1994至1997年间，价值约5亿美元的卫星保险索赔是这种干扰的直接或间接结果。目前，需要昂贵的屏蔽来缓解这种影响，尽管任何数量的屏蔽都不能提供100%的保护。随着社会对天基技术的依赖与日俱增，显然，破坏的可能性和相关成本是巨大的。通过更好地了解造成这种影响的实际原因，以及随后开发减轻这些影响的手段，可以大大降低这种成本。

The interaction of particles and waves is a universal physical process that occurs in nature (e.g. wave-particle heating of the solar corona) as well as in the laboratory (e.g. wave-particle heating of plasmas within magnetic-confinement tokamaks). The development of high-powered radio-transmitters has meant that it is now possible to transmit very low frequency (VLF) signals along magnetic flux tubes with the aim of inducing such wave-particle interactions artificially in near-Earth space. This proposal outlines a method - known as radiation belt remediation - to decrease the number of energetic electrons in the radiation belts by artificially stimulating electron-neutral collisions using such VLF signals. The constantly changing flux of energetic electrons within the radiation belts is dangerous to orbiting hardware such as commercial communication satellites, and numerous scientific and military satellites which fly through the region. If successful, the research proposed would have significant practical applications as well as answering pressing physics problems. Success would provide a means to potentially protect spacecraft and instrumentation from: (a) the elevated particle fluxes that occur naturally (e.g. due to solar-driven variations and in situ particle acceleration, which are known to cause occasional satellite failure) or, (b) the exceptionally high fluxes that can occur due to human actions (e.g. high-altitude nuclear detonations massively increase particle fluxes and would certainly damage satellites traversing the radiation belts). It is estimated radiation-belt disruptions to USA government satellites alone cost in excess of $100 million per year (pre-2000) and that between 1994 and 1997 around $500 million worth of satellite insurance claims were a direct or indirect result of such disruptions. At present, expensive shielding is required to mitigate this effect, although no amount of shielding can provide 100% protection. With an ever-increasing societal reliance on space-based technology, it is clear that the potential for disruption and the related cost is huge. Such costs may be significantly reduced by better understanding the physical cause of such effects and by subsequent development of means to mitigate them.