Abstract
We present observations from the Van Allen Probes spacecraft that identify a region of intense whistler mode activity within a large density enhancement outside of the plasmasphere. We speculate that this density enhancement is part of a remnant plasmaspheric plume, with the observed wave being driven by a weakly anisotropic electron injection that drifted into the plume and became nonlinearly unstable to whistler emission. Particle measurements indicate that a significant fraction of thermal (<100 eV) electrons within the plume were subject to Landau acceleration by these waves, an effect that is naturally explained by whistler emission within a gradient and high-density ducting inside a density enhancement.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 3073-3086 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics |
Volume | 122 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
- ducting
- wave-particle interactions
- whistlers