Cavitating Langmuir Turbulence in the Terrestrial Aurora

4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication to PRL feb 2012International audienceLangmuir cavitons have been artificially produced in the earth's ionosphere, but evidence of naturally-occurring cavitation has been elusive. By measuring and modeling the spectra of electrostatic plasma modes, we show that natural cavitating, or strong, Langmuir turbulence does occur in the ionosphere, via a process in which a beam of auroral electrons drives Langmuir waves, which in turn produce cascading Langmuir and ion-acoustic excitations and cavitating Langmuir turbulence