<p>Polarisation, which was first studied in optics, is a fundamental property of all electromagnetic fields. A convenient way to describe the polarisation of two dimensional electromagnetic fields is given by the Stokes parameters. This thesis deals with different aspects of wave polarisation and electromagnetic field measurements. A generalisation of the Stokes parameters to three dimensions is presented. The theory has been used to develop methods and systems for obtaining the polarisation parameters of electromagnetic waves. The methods can be applied for a wide range of electromagnetic fields, measured both on ground and onboard satellites. The applications include, e.g., direction-finding, polarisation analysis, radar, and several examples in the field of wireless communication. Further applications are given in the analysis of satellite data, where a whistler wave is considered. Whistlers are circularly polarised electromagnetic waves propagating in the magnetosphere along the geomagnetic field. Dispersion in the magnetospheric plasma make the whistler frequencies travel at different speeds and the signal takes the form of a chirp. From instantaneous polarisation analysis of the whistler´s magnetic wave field, the normal to the polarisation plane is obtained and found to precess around the geomagnetic field. A statistic analysis of ionospheric stimulated electromagnetic emissions (SEE) is also presented. SEE is generated by injecting a powerful high frequency radio wave into the ionosphere. It is shown that the SEE features have a statistical behaviour indistinguishable from the amplitude and phase distributions of narrow-band Gaussian noise. The results suggests that SEE cannot be explained by simple coherent processes alone. Finally, an expression for the complex Poynting theorem is derived for the general case of anharmonic fields. It is found that the complex Poynting theorem, for real fields and sources, is not a conservation law of the imaginary part of electromagnetic energy.</p>

<p>The magnetospheric cusps are two funnel-like regions of Earth's magnetosphere where solar wind plasma can have direct access to the ionosphere. The cusps are very dynamic regions where wave-particle interactions continuously take place and redistribute energy among different particle populations. In this thesis, both low and high frequency plasma waves in the cusp have been studied in detail using data from the Cluster spacecraft mission. The waves were studied with respect to frequency, Poynting flux and polarization. Wavelengths have also been estimated using multi-spacecraft techniques. At low frequencies, kinetic Alfvén waves and nonpotential ion cyclotron waves are identified and at high frequencies, electron cyclotron waves, whistler waves, upper-hybrid and RX-waves are observed. A common generation mechanism called the shell-instability is proposed for several of the wave modes present in the cusp, both at low and high frequencies. </p><p>The plasma in the cusp is shown to be strongly inhomogeneous. In an inhomogeneous low-frequency magnetoplasma, kinetic Alfvén waves couple to drift-waves. Such drift-kinetic Alfvén waves have long been believed to nonlinearly self-interact and form coherent structures in the form of drift-kinetic Alfvén vortices. In this thesis the first unambiguous direct measurements confirming the existence of such vortices in a turbulent space plasma are presented. Some of the crucial parameters such as the vortex radius are determined. </p><p>Plasma theory is electrodynamics applied to a large collection of charged particles. In this thesis a new way of looking at the fundamental Maxwell tensor is presented. A covariant spectral density tensor containing information on electromagnetic waves is formed. This tensor is then decomposed into irreducible components by using the spinor formalism for an arbitrary metric. The obtained fundamental tensors are shown to correspond both to well known tensors in Maxwell's theory, as well as several physically interesting new tensors.</p>

<p>Magnetic reconnection is a universal process occurring at boundaries between magnetized plasmas, where changes in the topology of the magnetic field lead to the transport of charged particles across the boundaries and to the conversion of electromagnetic energy into kinetic and thermal energy of the particles. Reconnection occurs in laboratory plasmas, in solar system plasmas and it is considered to play a key role in many other space environments such as magnetized stars and accretion disks around stars and planets under formation. Magnetic reconnection is a multi-scale plasma process where the small spatial and temporal scales are strongly coupled to the large scales. Reconnection is initiated rapidly in small regions by microphysical processes but it affects very large volumes of space for long times. The best laboratory to experimentally study magnetic reconnection at different scales is the near-Earth space, the so-called Geospace, where Cluster spacecraft <i>in situ</i> measurements are available. The European Space Agency Cluster mission is composed of four-spacecraft flying in a formation and this allows, for the first time, simultaneous four-point measurements at different scales, thanks to the changeable spacecraft separation. In this thesis Cluster observations of magnetic reconnection in Geospace are presented both at large and at small scales. </p><p>At large temporal (a few hours) and spatial (several thousands km) scales, both fluid and kinetic evidence of reconnection is provided. The evidence consist of ions accelerated and transmitted across the Earth’s magnetopause. The observations show that component reconnection occurs at the magnetopause and that reconnection is continuous in time. </p><p>The microphysics of reconnection is investigated at smaller temporal (a few ion gyroperiods) and spatial (a few ion gyroradii) scales. Two regions are important for the microphysics: the X-region, around the X-line, where reconnection is initiated and the separatrix region, away from the X-line, where most of the energy conversion occurs. Observations of a separatrix region at the magnetopause are shown and the microphysics is described in detail. The separatrix region is shown to be highly structured and dynamic even away from the X-line.</p><p>Finally the discovery of magnetic reconnection in turbulent plasma is presented by showing, for the first time, <i>in situ</i> evidence of reconnection in a thin current sheet found in the turbulent plasma downstream of the quasi-parallel Earth’s bow shock. It is shown that turbulent reconnection is fast and that electromagnetic energy is converted into heating and acceleration of particles in turbulent plasma. It is also shown that reconnecting current sheets are abundant in turbulent plasma and that reconnection can be an efficient energy dissipation mechanism.</p>

The Auroral Large Imaging System (ALIS) was proposed in 1989 by Åke Steen as a joint Scandinavian ground-based nework of automated auroral imaging stations. The primary scientic objective was in the field of auroral physics, but it was soon realised that ALIS could be used in other fields, for example, studies of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC), meteors, as well as other atmospheric phenomena. This report describes the design, operation and scientic results from a Swedish prototype of ALIS consisting of six unmanned remote-controlled stations located in a grid of about 50 km in northern Sweden. Each station is equipped with a sensitive high-resolution (1024 x 1024 pixels) unintensified monochromatic CCDimager. A six-position filter-wheel for narrow-band interference filters facilitates absolute spectroscopic measurements of, for example, auroral and airglow emissions. Overlapping fields-of-view resulting from the station baseline of about 50 km combined with the station field-of-view of 50° to 60°, enable triangulation as well as tomographic methods to be employed for obtaining altitude information of the observed phenomena. ALIS was probably one of the first instruments to take advantage of unintensi- fied (i.e. no image-intensifier) scientific-grade CCDs as detectors for spectroscopic imaging studies with multiple stations of faint phenomena such as aurora, airglow, etc. This makes absolute calibration a task that is as important as it is dificult. Although ALIS was primarily designed for auroral studies, the majority of the scientific results so far have, quite unexpectedly, been obtained from observations of HF pump-enhanced airglow (recently renamed Radio-Induced Aurora). ALIS made the first unambiguous observation of this phenomena at high-latitudes and the first tomography-like inversion of height profiles of the airglow regions. The scientific results so far include tomographic estimates of the auroral electron spectra, coordinated observations with satellite and radar, as well as studies of polar stratospheric clouds. An ALIS imager also participated in a joint project that produced the first ground-based daytime auroral images. Recently ALIS made spectroscopic observations of a Leonid meteor-trail and preliminary analysis indicates the possible detection of water in the Leonid.

The concept of energy production through the fusion of two light nuclei has been studied since the 1950’s. One of the major problems that fusion scientists have encountered is the confinement of the hot ionised gas, i.e. the plasma, in which the fusion process takes place. The most common way to contain the plasma is by using at magnetic field configuration, in which the plasma takes a doughnut-like shape. Experimental devices of this kind are referred to as tokamaks. For the fusion process to proceed at an adequate rate, the temperature of the plasma must exceed 100,000,000C. Such a high temperature forces the plasma out of thermodynamical equilibrium which plasma tries to regain by exciting a number of turbulent processes. After successfully quenching the lager scale magnetohydrodynamic turbulence that may instantly disrupt the plasma, a smaller scale turbulence revealed itself. As this smaller scale turbulence behaved contrary to the common theory at the time, it was referred to as anomalous. This kind of turbulence does not directly threaten existents of the plasma, but it allows for a leakage of heat and particles which inhibits the fusion reactions. It is thus essential to understand the origin of anomalous turbulence, the transport it generates and most importantly, how to reduce it. Today it is believed that anomalous transport is due to drift-type waves driven by temperature and density inhomogeneities and the theoretical treatment of these waves is the topic of this thesis. The first part of the thesis contains a rigorous analytical two-fluid treatment of drift waves driven solely by density inhomogeneities. Effects of the toroidal magnetic field configuration, the Landau resonance, a peaked diamagnetic frequency and a sheared rotation of the plasma have been taken into account. These effects either stabilise or destabilise the drift waves and to determine the net result on the drift waves requires careful analysis. To this end, dispersion relations have been obtained in various limits to determine when to expect the different effects to be dominant. The main result of this part is that with a large enough rotational shear, the drift waves will be quenched. In the second part we focus on temperature effects and thus treat reactive drift waves, specifically ion temperature gradient and trapped electron modes. In fusion plasmas the α-particles, created as a by-product of the fusion process, transfer the better part of their energy to the electrons and hence the electron temperature is expected to exceed the ion temperature. In most experiments until today, the ion temperature is greater than the electron temperature and this have been proven to improve the plasma confinement. To predict the performance of future fusion plasmas, where the fusion process is ongoing, a comprehensive study of hot-electron plasmas and external heating effects have been carried out. Especially the stiffness (heat flux vs. inverse temperature length scale) of the plasma has been examined. This work was performed by simulations done with the JETTO code utilising the Weiland model. The outcome of these simulations shows that the plasma response to strong heating is very stiff and that the plasma energy confinement time seems to vary little in the hot-electron mode.

This thesis discusses the reasons for space exploration and space science. Space plasma physics is identified as an essential building block to understand the space environment and it is argued that observation and analysis of space plasma waves is an important approach. Space plasma waves are the main actors in many important processes. So-called broadband waves are found responsible for much of the ion heating in the auroral region. We investigate the wave properties of broadband waves and show that they can be described as a mixture of electrostatic wave modes. In small regions void of cold electrons the broadband activity is found to be ion acoustic waves and these regions are also identified as acceleration regions. The identification of the wave modes includes reconstructions of the wave distribution function. The reconstruction technique allow us to determine the wave vector spectrum, which cannot be measured directly. The method is applied to other wave events and it is compared in some detail with a similar method. Space plasma wave are also sensitive tools for investigations of both the fine-structure and the dynamics of space plasmas. Studies of whistler mode waves observed in the boundary layer on the magnetospheric side of the magnetopause reveal that the plasma is organized in tube-like structures moving with the plasma drift velocity. The perpendicular dimension of these tubes is of the order of the electron inertial length. We present evidence that each tube is linked to a reconnection site and argue that the high density of tube-like structures indicates patchy reconnection.

Polarisation, which was first studied in optics, is a fundamental property of all electromagnetic fields. A convenient way to describe the polarisation of two dimensional electromagnetic fields is given by the Stokes parameters. This thesis deals with different aspects of wave polarisation and electromagnetic field measurements. A generalisation of the Stokes parameters to three dimensions is presented. The theory has been used to develop methods and systems for obtaining the polarisation parameters of electromagnetic waves. The methods can be applied for a wide range of electromagnetic fields, measured both on ground and onboard satellites. The applications include, e.g., direction-finding, polarisation analysis, radar, and several examples in the field of wireless communication. Further applications are given in the analysis of satellite data, where a whistler wave is considered. Whistlers are circularly polarised electromagnetic waves propagating in the magnetosphere along the geomagnetic field. Dispersion in the magnetospheric plasma make the whistler frequencies travel at different speeds and the signal takes the form of a chirp. From instantaneous polarisation analysis of the whistler´s magnetic wave field, the normal to the polarisation plane is obtained and found to precess around the geomagnetic field. A statistic analysis of ionospheric stimulated electromagnetic emissions (SEE) is also presented. SEE is generated by injecting a powerful high frequency radio wave into the ionosphere. It is shown that the SEE features have a statistical behaviour indistinguishable from the amplitude and phase distributions of narrow-band Gaussian noise. The results suggests that SEE cannot be explained by simple coherent processes alone. Finally, an expression for the complex Poynting theorem is derived for the general case of anharmonic fields. It is found that the complex Poynting theorem, for real fields and sources, is not a conservation law of the imaginary part of electromagnetic energy.

The magnetospheric cusps are two funnel-like regions of Earth's magnetosphere where solar wind plasma can have direct access to the ionosphere. The cusps are very dynamic regions where wave-particle interactions continuously take place and redistribute energy among different particle populations. In this thesis, both low and high frequency plasma waves in the cusp have been studied in detail using data from the Cluster spacecraft mission. The waves were studied with respect to frequency, Poynting flux and polarization. Wavelengths have also been estimated using multi-spacecraft techniques. At low frequencies, kinetic Alfvén waves and nonpotential ion cyclotron waves are identified and at high frequencies, electron cyclotron waves, whistler waves, upper-hybrid and RX-waves are observed. A common generation mechanism called the shell-instability is proposed for several of the wave modes present in the cusp, both at low and high frequencies. The plasma in the cusp is shown to be strongly inhomogeneous. In an inhomogeneous low-frequency magnetoplasma, kinetic Alfvén waves couple to drift-waves. Such drift-kinetic Alfvén waves have long been believed to nonlinearly self-interact and form coherent structures in the form of drift-kinetic Alfvén vortices. In this thesis the first unambiguous direct measurements confirming the existence of such vortices in a turbulent space plasma are presented. Some of the crucial parameters such as the vortex radius are determined. Plasma theory is electrodynamics applied to a large collection of charged particles. In this thesis a new way of looking at the fundamental Maxwell tensor is presented. A covariant spectral density tensor containing information on electromagnetic waves is formed. This tensor is then decomposed into irreducible components by using the spinor formalism for an arbitrary metric. The obtained fundamental tensors are shown to correspond both to well known tensors in Maxwell's theory, as well as several physically interesting new tensors.

Magnetic reconnection is a universal process occurring at boundaries between magnetized plasmas, where changes in the topology of the magnetic field lead to the transport of charged particles across the boundaries and to the conversion of electromagnetic energy into kinetic and thermal energy of the particles. Reconnection occurs in laboratory plasmas, in solar system plasmas and it is considered to play a key role in many other space environments such as magnetized stars and accretion disks around stars and planets under formation. Magnetic reconnection is a multi-scale plasma process where the small spatial and temporal scales are strongly coupled to the large scales. Reconnection is initiated rapidly in small regions by microphysical processes but it affects very large volumes of space for long times. The best laboratory to experimentally study magnetic reconnection at different scales is the near-Earth space, the so-called Geospace, where Cluster spacecraft in situ measurements are available. The European Space Agency Cluster mission is composed of four-spacecraft flying in a formation and this allows, for the first time, simultaneous four-point measurements at different scales, thanks to the changeable spacecraft separation. In this thesis Cluster observations of magnetic reconnection in Geospace are presented both at large and at small scales. At large temporal (a few hours) and spatial (several thousands km) scales, both fluid and kinetic evidence of reconnection is provided. The evidence consist of ions accelerated and transmitted across the Earth’s magnetopause. The observations show that component reconnection occurs at the magnetopause and that reconnection is continuous in time. The microphysics of reconnection is investigated at smaller temporal (a few ion gyroperiods) and spatial (a few ion gyroradii) scales. Two regions are important for the microphysics: the X-region, around the X-line, where reconnection is initiated and the separatrix region, away from the X-line, where most of the energy conversion occurs. Observations of a separatrix region at the magnetopause are shown and the microphysics is described in detail. The separatrix region is shown to be highly structured and dynamic even away from the X-line. Finally the discovery of magnetic reconnection in turbulent plasma is presented by showing, for the first time, in situ evidence of reconnection in a thin current sheet found in the turbulent plasma downstream of the quasi-parallel Earth’s bow shock. It is shown that turbulent reconnection is fast and that electromagnetic energy is converted into heating and acceleration of particles in turbulent plasma. It is also shown that reconnecting current sheets are abundant in turbulent plasma and that reconnection can be an efficient energy dissipation mechanism.

Magnetized planets, such as Earth, are strongly influenced by the solar wind. The Sun is very dynamic, releasing varying amounts of energy, resulting in a fluctuating energy and momentum exchange between the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres. The efficiency of this coupling is thought to be controlled by magnetic reconnection occurring at the boundary between solar wind and planetary magnetic fields. One of the main tasks in space physics research is to increase the understanding of this coupling between the Sun and other solar system bodies. Perhaps the most important aspect regards the transfer of energy from the solar wind to the terrestrial magnetosphere as this is the main source for driving plasma processes in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system. This may also have a direct practical influence on our life here on Earth as it is responsible for Space Weather effects. In this thesis I investigate both the global scale of the varying solar-terrestrial coupling and local phenomena in more detail. I use mainly the European Space Agency Cluster mission which provide unprecedented three-dimensional observations via its formation of four identical spacecraft. The Cluster data are complimented with observations from a broad range of instruments both onboard spacecraft and from groundbased magnetometers and radars. A period of very strong solar driving in late October 2003 is investigated. We show that some of the strongest substorms in the history of magnetic recordings were triggered by pressure pulses impacting a quasi-stable magnetosphere. We make for the first time direct estimates of the local energy flow into the magnetotail using Cluster measurements. Observational estimates suggest a good energy balance between the magnetosphere-ionosphere system while empirical proxies seem to suffer from over/under estimations during such extreme conditions. Another period of extreme interplanetary conditions give rise to accelerated flows along the magnetopause which could account for an enhanced energy coupling between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. We discuss whether such conditions could explain the simultaneous observation of a large auroral spiral across the polar cap. Contrary to extreme conditions the energy conversion across the dayside magnetopause has been estimated during an extended period of steady interplanetary conditions. A new method to determine the rate at which reconnection occurs is described that utilizes the magnitude of the local energy conversion from Cluster. The observations show a varying reconnection rate which support the previous interpretation that reconnection is continuous but its rate is modulated. Finally, we compare local energy estimates from Cluster with a global magnetohydrodynamic simulation. The results show that the observations are reliably reproduced by the model and may be used to validate and scale global magnetohydrodynamic models.