Journal article
Low‐Energy (<200 eV) Electron Acceleration by ULF Waves in the Plasmaspheric Boundary Layer: Van Allen Probes Observation
Journal of geophysical research. Space physics, Vol.122(10), pp.9969-9982
10/2017
DOI: 10.1002/2017JA024316
Abstract
We report observational evidence of cold plasmaspheric electron (<200 eV) acceleration by ultralow frequency (ULF) waves in the plasmaspheric boundary layer on 10 September 2015. Strongly enhanced cold electron fluxes in the energy spectrogram were observed along with second harmonic mode waves with a period of about 1 min which lasted several hours during two consecutive Van Allen Probe B orbits. Cold electron (<200 eV) and energetic proton (10–20 keV) bidirectional pitch angle signatures observed during the event are suggestive of the drift‐bounce resonance mechanism. The correlation between enhanced energy fluxes and ULF waves leads to the conclusions that plasmaspheric dynamics is strongly affected by ULF waves. Van Allen Probe A and B, GOES 13, GOES 15, and MMS 1 observations suggest that ULF waves in the event were strongest on the duskside magnetosphere. Measurements from MMS 1 contain no evidence of an external wave source during the period when ULF waves and injected energetic protons with a bump‐on‐tail distribution were detected by Van Allen Probe B. This suggests that the observed ULF waves were probably excited by a localized drift‐bounce resonant instability, with the free energy supplied by substorm‐injected energetic protons. The observations by Van Allen Probe B suggest that energy transfer between particle species in different energy ranges can take place through the action of ULF waves, demonstrating the important role of these waves in the dynamical processes of the inner magnetosphere.
Key Points
We report observational evidence of cold plasmaspheric electron acceleration by ULF waves in the plasmasphere boundary layer
Plasmaspheric dynamics can be strongly affected by ULF waves through drift‐bounce resonance between cold electrons and ULF waves
Energy transfer between particle species in different energy range can take place through the action of ULF waves
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Low‐Energy (<200 eV) Electron Acceleration by ULF Waves in the Plasmaspheric Boundary Layer: Van Allen Probes Observation
- Creators
- Jie Ren - Peking UniversityQ.‐G Zong - Peking UniversityY Miyoshi - Nagoya UniversityX. Z Zhou - Peking UniversityY. F Wang - Peking UniversityR Rankin - University of AlbertaC Yue - University Corporation for Atmospheric ResearchH. E Spence - University of New HampshireH. O Funsten - Los Alamos National LaboratoryJ. R Wygant - University of MinnesotaC. A Kletzing - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of geophysical research. Space physics, Vol.122(10), pp.9969-9982
- DOI
- 10.1002/2017JA024316
- ISSN
- 2169-9380
- eISSN
- 2169-9402
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- NASA Living With a Star Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Major Project of Chinese National Programs for Fundamental Research and Development (2012CB825603) Canadian Space Agency National Natural Science Foundation of China (41627805) NSERC
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/2017
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984199742102771
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