Wake of a Satellite Traversing the Ionosphere

Abstract

The particle treatment is applied to a study of the structure of the wake behind a charged body moving supersonically through a low‐density plasma. For the case of a body whose dimensions are considerably smaller than a Debye length, a solution is obtained which is very similar in structure to the solution obtained by using the linearized fluid dynamics equation. For the case of a disk whose radial dimensions are much larger than a Debye length, two conical regions are found in the wake. At the surface of each of these cones, over thicknesses of the order of a Debye length, the ion and electron densities are increased over their ambient values. Formulae for the electrohydrodynamic drag on a wire, and on a large disk are obtained.