Transport of thermal plasma above the auroral ionosphere in the presence of electrostatic ion-cyclotron turbulence

The electron component of intensive electric currents flowing along the geo magnetic field lines excites turbulence in the thermal magnetospheric plasm a. The protons are then scattered by the excited electromagnetic waves, and as a result the plasma is stable. As the electron and ion temperatures of the background plasma are approximately equal each other, here electrostati c ion-cyclotron (EIC) turbulence is considered. In the nonisothermal plasma the ion-acoustic turbulence may occur additionally. The anomalous resistiv ity of the plasma causes large-scale differences of the electrostatic poten tial along the magnetic field lines. The presence of these differences prov ides heating and acceleration of the thermal and energetic auroral plasma. The investigation of the energy and momentum balance of the plasma and wave s in the turbulent region is performed numerically, taking the magnetospher ic convection and thermal conductivity of the plasma into account. As shown for the quasi-steady state, EIC turbulence may provide differences of the electric potential of Delta V approximate to 1-10 kV at altitudes of 500 < h < 10 000 km above the Earth's surface. In the turbulent region, the tempe ratures of the electrons and protons increase only a few times in compariso n with the background values.