Conjugate Ground-Spacecraft Observations of VLF Chorus Elements

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Abstract
We present results of simultaneous observations of VLF chorus elements at the ground-based station Kannuslehto in Northern Finland and on board Van Allen Probe A. Visual inspection and correlation analysis of the data reveal one-to-one correspondence of several (at least 12) chorus elements following each other in a sequence. Poynting flux calculated from electromagnetic fields measured by the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science instrument on board Van Allen Probe A shows that the waves propagate at small angles to the geomagnetic field and oppositely to its direction, that is, from northern to southern geographic hemisphere. The spacecraft was located at L≃4.1 at a geomagnetic latitude of -12.4o close to the plasmapause and inside a localized density inhomogeneity with about 30\% density increase and a transverse size of about 600 km. The time delay between the waves detected on the ground and on the spacecraft is about 1.3 s, with ground-based detection leading spacecraft detection. The measured time delay is consistent with the wave travel time of quasi-parallel whistler-mode waves for a realistic profile of the plasma density distribution along the field line. The results suggest that chorus discrete elements can preserve their spectral shape during a hop from the generation region to the ground followed by reflection from the ionosphere and return to the near-equatorial region.
Year of Publication
2017
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Number of Pages
735-11
Date Published
12/2017
URL
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL076139/full
DOI
10.1002/2017GL076139
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