SBIR-STTR Award

A robust method for achieving stochastic heating of ionospheric electrons to relativeistic energies is proposed that uses multiple frequency electron cyclotron heating (mfech): electromagnetic radiation from ground based antennas is focused on a suitable region of the earth's magnetosphere; and the frequency spectrum of the radiation is chosen toprevent the occurrence of relativistic limit cycles that might restrict the achievable electron energies to low values. The amphed experimental facility, now in operation at ampc, will be used to demonstrate effective electron heating in a weakly inhomogeneous magnetic field using mfech. Subsequently, the laboratory results will be scaled up using appropriate theoretical models to permit an evaluation of this technique for selected active experiments in space. Of particular interest is the alfven maser concept for pumping high energy ions and electron out of the earth's radiation belts. Given successful results from the phase i demonstration of electron heating, amphed will be used in phase ii to simulate critical aspects of the alfven maser concept.