Whistler wave generation by anisotropic tail electrons during asymmetric magnetic reconnection in space and laboratory

Dataset · Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.11578/1562001· OSTI ID:1562001

Yoo, Jongsoo ^[1]; Jara-almonte, J; Yerger, Evan; Wang, Shan; Qian, Tony; Le, Ari; Ji, Hantao; Yamada, Masaaki; Fox, William; Kim, Eun-Hwa; Chen, Li-Jen; Gershman, Daniel

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1. OSTI

Whistler wave generation near the magnetospheric separatrix during reconnection at the dayside magnetopause is studied with data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. The dispersion relation of the whistler mode is measured for the first time near the reconnection region in space, which shows that whistler waves propagate nearly parallel to the magnetic field line. A linear analysis indicates that the whistler waves are generated by temperature anisotropy in the electron tail population. This is caused by loss of electrons with a high velocity parallel to the magnetic field to the exhaust region. There is a positive correlation between activities of whistler waves and the lower-hybrid drift instability (LHDI) both in laboratory and space, indicating the enhanced transport by LHDI may be responsible for the loss of electrons with a high parallel velocity.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: U. S. Department of Energy
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-09CH11466
• OSTI ID: 1562001
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Dispersion relation
Lower‐hybrid drift instability
Magnetic reconnection
Temperature anisotropy
Whistler wave