Bibliography

Quenching of Equatorial Magnetosonic Waves by Substorm Proton Injections

Near equatorial (fast) magnetosonic waves, characterized by high magnetic compressibility, are whistler-mode emissions destabilized by proton shell/ring distributions. In the past, substorm proton injections are widely known to intensify magnetosonic waves in the inner magnetosphere. Here we report the unexpected observations by the Van Allen Probes of the magnetosonic wave quenching associated with the substorm proton injections under both high- and low-density conditions. The enhanced proton thermal pressure distorted the background magnetic field configuration and the cold plasma density distribution. The reduced phase velocities locally allowed the weak growth or even damping of magnetosonic waves. Meanwhile, the spatially irregularly varying refractive indices might suppress the cumulative growth of magnetosonic waves. For intense injections, this wave quenching region could extend over 2 hr in magnetic local time and 0.5 Earth radii in radial distance. These results provide a new understanding of the generation and distribution of magnetosonic waves.

Dai, Guyue; Su, Zhenpeng; Liu, Nigang; Wang, Bin; Zheng, Huinan; Wang, Yuming; Wang, Shui;

Published by: Geophysical Research Letters      Published on: 05/2019

YEAR: 2019     DOI: 10.1029/2019GL082944

Bernstein mode instability; magnetosonic wave; Radiation belt; ring current; substorm injection; Van Allen Probes; Wave-particle interaction

Magnetosonic harmonic falling and rising frequency emissions potentially generated by nonlinear wave-wave interactions in the Van Allen radiation belts

Magnetosonic waves play a potentially important role in the complex evolution of the radiation belt electrons. These waves typically appear as discrete emission lines along the proton gyrofrequency harmonics, consistent with the prediction of the local Bernstein mode instability of hot proton ring distributions. Magnetosonic waves are nearly dispersionless particularly at low harmonics and therefore have the roughly unchanged frequency-time structures during the propagation. On the basis of Van Allen Probes observations, we here present the first report of magnetosonic harmonic falling and rising frequency emissions. They lasted for up to 2 h and occurred primarily in the dayside plasmatrough following intense substorms. These harmonic emission lines were well spaced by the proton gyrofrequency but exhibited a clear falling (rising) frequency characteristic in a regime with the temporal increase (decrease) of the proton gyrofrequency harmonics. Such unexpected structures might be produced by the nonlinear interactions between the locally generated magnetosonic waves at the proton gyrofrequency harmonics and a constant frequency magnetosonic wave propagating away from the Earth.

Liu, Nigang; Su, Zhenpeng; Zheng, Huinan; Wang, Yuming; Wang, Shui;

Published by: Geophysical Research Letters      Published on: 07/2018

YEAR: 2018     DOI: 10.1029/2018GL079232

Bernstein mode instability; magnetosonic wave; Radiation belt; ring current; rising/falling frequency; Van Allen Probes; wave propagation

Direct observation of generation and propagation of magnetosonic waves following substorm injection

Magnetosonic whistler mode waves play an important role in the radiation belt electron dynamics. Previous theory has suggested that these waves are excited by the ring distributions of hot protons and can propagate radially and azimuthally over a broad spatial range. However, because of the challenging requirements on satellite locations and data-processing techniques, this theory was difficult to validate directly. Here we present some experimental tests of the theory on the basis of Van Allen Probes observations of magnetosonic waves following substorm injections. At higher L-shells with significant substorm injections, the discrete magnetosonic emission lines started approximately at the proton gyrofrequency harmonics, qualitatively consistent with the prediction of linear proton Bernstein mode instability. In the frequency-time spectrograms, these emission lines exhibited a clear rising tone characteristic with a long duration of 15-25 mins, implying the additional contribution of other undiscovered mechanisms. Nearly at the same time, the magnetosonic waves arose at lower L-shells without substorm injections. The wave signals at two different locations, separated by ΔL up to 2.0 and by ΔMLT up to 4.2, displayed the consistent frequency-time structures, strongly supporting the hypothesis about the radial and azimuthal propagation of magnetosonic waves.

Su, Zhenpeng; Wang, Geng; Liu, Nigang; Zheng, Huinan; Wang, Yuming; Wang, Shui;

Published by: Geophysical Research Letters      Published on: 07/2018

YEAR: 2017     DOI: 10.1002/2017GL074362

Bernstein mode instability; magnetosonic waves; Radiation belt; rising tone; substorm injection; Van Allen Probes; Wave-particle interaction