Plasma phenomena

electrical discharge brought on by the ionization of a fluid such as air surrounding a conductor that is electrically charged

thumb|upright|Bremsstrahlung produced by a high-energy electron deflected in the electric field of an atomic nucleus

thumb|Airglow over Auvergne, France thumb|Yellow, green and red bands of airglow along Earth's limb as seen from space.

sudden flow of electricity between two electrically charged objects caused by contact, an electrical short, or dielectric breakdown

kind of electrical discharge

thumb|200px|Ablation near the electrode in a flashtube. The high-energy electrical arc slowly erodes the glass, leaving a frosted appearance.

physical process in highly conducting plasmas in which the magnetic topology is rearranged and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, thermal energy, and particle acceleration

flow of electric charge through a gas, liquid or solid

set of currents that flow along geomagnetic field lines connecting the magnetosphere to the ionosphere

thumb|A ball on the top of a hill is an unstable situation. In dynamical systems, instability means that some of the outputs or internal states increase with time, without bounds. Not all systems that are not stable are unstable; systems can also be marginally stable or exhibit limit cycle behavior.

radius of the circular movement of an electrically charged particle in a magnetic field

radiation emitted by charged particles deflected by magnetic field

drift between charged and neutral particles in a plasma

thumb|A STEVE over Little Bow Resort, [[Alberta, in August 2015]] thumb|A STEVE over Crossfield, Alberta, in March 2018 (around 12:30 a.m.)

compression of an electrically conducting filament by magnetic forces

thumbnail|right|300px|Natural plasmoid produced in the near-Earth magnetotail by magnetic reconnection A plasmoid is a coherent structure of plasma and magnetic fields. Plasmoids have been proposed to explain natural phenomena such as ball lightning, magnetic bubbles in the magnetosphere, and objects in cometary tails, in the solar wind, solar atmosphere, and in the heliospheric current sheet. Plasmoids produced in the laboratory include the compact toroids (similar to a vortex ring in low temperature fluid dynamics or hydrodynamics) field-reversed configurations, spheromaks, and filamentary v

effect of damping of longitudinal space charge waves in plasma or a similar environment

damping of electric fields caused by the presence of mobile charge carriers

process by which positive ions of a plasma capture a free (energetic) electron and combine with electrons or negative ions to form new neutral atoms (gas); exothermic reaction, meaning heat releasing

a phenomenon related to the movement of ions in a magnetic field

airflow induced by electrostatic forces

thumb|250px|Light passing through a gradient-index optics|gradient-index lens is focused as in a convex lens. In self-focusing, the refractive index gradient is induced by the light itself. Self-focusing is a non-linear optical process induced by the change in refractive index of materials exposed to intense electromagnetic radiation. A medium whose refractive index increases with the electric field intensity acts as a focusing lens for an electromagnetic wave characterized by an initial transverse intensity gradient, as in a laser beam. The peak intensity of the self-focused region keeps incr

type of solar phenomenon

binary elastic collision between two charged particles

electric current confined to a surface

physical phenomenon

nonneutral layer in a plasma