Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 23, 2026

Activating Molecules, Ions, and Solid Particles with Acoustic Cavitation
Published on: April 11, 2014
Cavitating Langmuir turbulence in the terrestrial aurora
B Isham1, M T Rietveld, P Guio
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Bayamón, Puerto Rico. bisham@email.bc.inter.edu
Abstract:
Langmuir cavitons have been artificially produced in Earth's ionosphere, but evidence of naturally occurring cavitation has been elusive. By measuring and modeling the spectra of electrostatic plasma modes, we show that natural cavitating, or strong, Langmuir turbulence does occur in the ionosphere, via a process in which a beam of auroral electrons drives Langmuir waves, which in turn produce cascading Langmuir and ion-acoustic excitations and cavitating Langmuir turbulence. The data presented here are the first direct evidence of cavitating Langmuir turbulence occurring naturally in any space or astrophysical plasma.
Related Concept Videos
Magnetostatic Boundary Conditions
Momentum And Radiation Pressure
Divergence and Curl of Magnetic Field
Magnetic Field Lines
Magnetic field lines follow several hard-and-fast rules:
Magnetic Field due to Moving Charges
Consider a point charge moving with a constant velocity. Like the electric field, the magnetic field at any point is directly proportional to the magnitude of the charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the source point and the field point. However, unlike the electric field, the magnetic field is always perpendicular to the plane containing the line...
Atomic Nuclei: Larmor Precession Frequency

