Saturation of radiation-induced parametric instabilities by excitation of Langmuir turbulence

Progress made in the last few years in the calculation of the saturation spectra of parametric instabilities which involve Langmuir daughter waves will be reviewed. These instabilities include the ion acoustic decay instability, the two plasmon decay instability (TPDI), and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). In particular we will emphasize spectral signatures which can be directly compared with experiment. The calculations are based on reduced models of driven Langmuir turbulence. Thomson scattering from hf-induced Langmuir turbulence in the unpreconditioned ionosphere has resulted in detailed agreement between theory and experiment at early times. Strong turbulence signatures dominate in this regime where the weak turbulence approximation fails completely. Recent experimental studies of the TPDI have measured the Fourier spectra of Langmuir waves as well as the angular and frequency spectra of light emitted near 3/2 of the pump frequency again permitting some detailed comparisons with theory. Thomson scattering measurements of the Langmuir wave spectra from SRS are consistent with the saturation by secondary and tertiary decay of the primary SRS Langmuir waves. Scaling laws derived from a local model of SRS saturation are compared with full simulations and recent Nova experiments.