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The generation and evolution of artificial plasma clouds is a complicated process that is strongly dependent on the background environment and release conditions. In this paper, based on a three-dimensional two-species fluid model, the evolution characteristics of artificial plasma clouds under various release conditions were analyzed numerically. In particular, the effect of ionospheric density gradient and ambient horizontal wind field was taken into account in our simulation. The results show that an asymmetric plasma cloud structure occurs in the vertical direction when a nonuniform ionosphere is assumed. The density, volume, and expansion velocity of the artificial plasma cloud vary with the release altitude, mass, and initial ionization rate. The initial release velocity can change the cloud's movement and overall distribution. With an initial velocity perpendicular to the magnetic field, an O+ density cavity and two bumps exist. When there is an initial velocity parallel to the magnetic field, the generated plasma cloud is bulb-shaped, and only one O+ density cavity and one density bump are created. Compared to the cesium case, barium clouds expand more rapidly. Moreover, Cs+ clouds have a higher density than Ba+ clouds, and the snowplow effect of Cs+ is also stronger.

It is known that so-called solar flares systematically occur in the area of sunspots. They are accompanied by radiation in almost all frequency ranges and sometimes by the emission of hot plasma. Observations on the RATAN-600 radio telescope have shown that the radio emission spectrum of plasma clouds heated to values of the order of 10 6 K erupted from the solar flare region turned out to be adiabatic. The high correlation of the inhomogeneities of the radio emission spectra of active formation over a group of sunspots indicates the stable presence of recombination radio lines in the radiation of active formation. However, the radio emission spectra of hot plasma clouds ejected from the region of solar flares occurring in this group of spots do not show any correlation.

During the laser cladding process, the temperature, flow velocity, and element concentration of the molten pool will be affected by the plasma. Quantitative analysis of the mechanism by which the plasma affects heat and mass transfer during the laser cladding process is of great significance for improving the quality of the cladding layer. In this paper, a multi-field coupled numerical model of the laser cladding process of Fe60 using an ASTM 1045 disk laser was established. In the modeling, the interaction between the plasma cloud and the laser beam (the ionization process of metal vapor absorbing photon energy and the absorption and shielding effect of the plasma on laser energy), as well as the influence of surface tension, buoyancy, and shock waves generated by the expansion of the plasma cloud on the Marangoni flow of the liquid metal, was considered. A comparative analysis was performed on the transient evolution of the temperature field, flow field, and concentration field during the laser cladding process in the presence of the plasma cloud. The results show that the ionization process of metal vapor and the shielding effect of the plasma cloud cause a decrease in laser energy and the temperature of the cladding layer. The Marangoni flow is affected by the shock waves generated by the expansion of the plasma cloud, resulting in a decrease in the flow velocity of the melt. A slight decrease in the concentration of Fe, Cr, and Ni elements and a slight increase in the concentration of C element in the cladding layer are caused by melt evaporation.

This paper describes the results of a laboratory experiment on the sub-Alfvén expansion of a quasi-spherical laser plasma cloud into a vacuum magnetic field in the regime of nonmagnetized ions. The role of Hall fields and currents in the anomalously fast dynamics of the magnetic field during the collapse phase of a diamagnetic cavity is considered. Detailed spatial measurements of the azimuthal Hall fields configuration are demonstrated and their relationship to diamagnetic cavity collapse is determined. As a result of the experiment, data were obtained confirming the hypothesis about the transfer of the main magnetic field by the movement of electrons associated with Hall currents.

It was shown for the first time that in a laboratory experiment a train of laser plasma clouds makes it possible to increase the length of the whistler waves generated in the power tube of a magnetized medium. The intensity of waves is orders of magnitude higher than the level achieved by known methods.

Signals generated by dust impacting spacecraft can be detected by electric field instruments. These signals have been simulated by numerous models. However, few models can accurately characterize the expansion of the plasma cloud generated by dust impact. The COMSOL model presented in this paper provides a way to understand the expansion properties of ions and electrons. The model can also be used to analyze the various expected waveforms of dust impact signals as a function of different parameters, such as the spacecraft voltage and the ambient plasma temperature. The results show that close to 50% of ions and electrons in the impact plasma cloud are collected by spacecraft at weak spacecraft potentials and that a fraction of the ions is still collected rather than all of them streaming away from the impact location at V SC > 0 V. The model also confirms that in the expanding plasma cloud, ions are in the form of plumes, while electrons diffuse in an isotropic manner.

It has been suggested that star-forming galaxies may host a substantial, dark reservoir of gas in the form of planetary-mass molecular clouds that are so cold that H2 can condense. Here we investigate the process of tidal disruption of such “snow clouds” by close passage of field stars. We construct a suite of simulations using the hydrodynamic formalism introduced by Carter and Luminet, and use it to explore the properties of the resulting tidal debris. The debris streams are tiny structures that are highly over-pressured relative to the ambient interstellar medium (ISM). They are also unusual in their composition—initially consisting of cold, gaseous He together with H2 “snowballs” that may be as much as a meter in size. Each stream expands and cools and is subsequently shocked as it plows through the ISM; the snowballs are gradually eroded by the shocked gas. Snowballs streaming through the shocked ISM create microstructured plasma that is somewhat reminiscent of the “scattering screens” revealed by radio-wave scintillation studies. However, the tidal disruption rate is too low to account for the observed number of scattering screens if, as we assume here, the stars and clouds have no prior physical association so that disruptions occur as a result of chance encounters between stars and clouds.

Hypervelocity impacts on spacecraft surfaces produce a wide range of effects including transient plasma clouds, surface material ablation, and for some impacts, the liberation of spacecraft material as debris clouds. This study examines debris-producing impacts on the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft as it traverses the densest part of the zodiacal cloud: the inner heliosphere. Hypervelocity impacts by interplanetary dust grains on the spacecraft that produce debris clouds are identified and examined. Impact-generated plasma and debris strongly perturb the near-spacecraft environment, producing distinct signals on electric, magnetic, and imaging sensors, as well as anomolous behavior of the star tracker cameras used for attitude determination. From these data, the spatial distribution, mass, and velocity of impactors that produce debris clouds are estimated. Debris-cloud expansion velocity and debris fragment sizes are constrained by the observational data, and long-duration electric potential perturbations caused by debris clouds are reported, along with a hypothesis for their creation. Impact-generated plasma-cloud expansion velocities, as well as pickup acceleration by the solar wind and driven plasma waves are also measured. Together, these observations produce a comprehensive picture of near-spacecraft environmental perturbations in the aftermath of a hypervelocity impact.

We have observed 123 pulsars with periods longer than 0.1 s in the Meterwavelength Single Pulse Polarimetric Emission Survey. In this work, a detailed study of the polarization behavior of these pulsars has been carried out. We were able to fit the rotating vector model to the polarization position angle sweeps in 68 pulsars, and in 34 pulsars the emission heights could be measured. In all cases the radio emission was constrained to arise below 10% of the light cylinder radius. In pulsars with low spin-down energy loss, Ė<1034 erg s−1, we found the mean fractional linear polarization of the individual time samples in single pulses to be around 0.57 (57%), which is significantly larger than the fractional linear polarization of 0.29 (29%) obtained from the average profiles. On the other hand, the mean fractional circular polarization of the individual time samples in single pulses is around 0.08 (8%), similar to the measurements from the average profiles. To explain the observed polarization features, we invoke the partially screened vacuum gap model of pulsars, where dense spark-associated plasma clouds exist with high pair plasma multiplicity, with significant decrease of density in the regions between the clouds that are dominated by iron ions. The coherent radio emission is excited by curvature radiation from charge bunches in these dense plasma clouds and escape as linearly polarized waves near cloud boundaries. We suggest that the circular polarization arises due to propagation of waves in the low-pair-multiplicity, ion-dominated inter-cloud regions.

Dust-impact-induced plasma oscillations (dust ringing) detected in Saturn’s Enceladus plume provide a novel method for measuring electron density. However, since S. Ye et al. discovered such events, their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, linear instability analysis and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are employed to demonstrate that the beam–plasma instability mechanism is the more probable cause of dust-ringing events. Dust-ringing events were first observed in a pristine environment within the Enceladus plume, with a characteristic duration of approximately 1 ms under negative spacecraft potential. Our linear analysis demonstrates significant wave growth at a high beam density of 0.1 times the background electron density, occurring when the beam electron velocity surpasses the ambient electron thermal velocity by a factor of 4. Additionally, the PIC simulations confirm Langmuir wave excitation at kλDe ≈ 0–0.3, manifested as enhanced electric field oscillations and electron velocity scattering. These results suggest that when the plasma cloud generated by the dust impact maintains a relatively high density during initial diffusion and forms a rapid beam relative to the background plasma, it triggers beam–plasma instability, resulting in dust-ringing effects.