On the kinetic dispersion for shear Alfven waves

Journal Article · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Journal of Geophysical Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/95JA03712· OSTI ID:255039

Lysak, R L ^[1]; Lotko, W ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
2. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States)

Kinetic Alfven waves have been invoked is association with auroral currents and particle acceleration since the pioneering work of Hasegawa. However, to date, no work has considered the dispersion relation including the full kinetic effects for both electrons and ions. Results from such a calculation are presented, with emphasis on the role of Landua damping in dissipating Alfven waves which propogate from the warm plasma of the outer magnetosphere to the cold plasma present in the ionosphere. It is found that the Landua damping is not important when the perpendicular wavelength is larger than the ion acoustic gyroradius and the electron inertial length. In addition, ion gyroradius effects lead to a reduction in the Landua damping by raising the parallel phase velocity of the wave above the electron thermal speed in the short perpendicular wavelength regime. These results indicate that low-frequency Alfven waves with perpendicular wavelengths greater than the order of 10 km when mapped to the ionosphere will not be significantly affected by Landau damping. While these results based on the local dispersion relation, are strictly valid only for short parallel wavelength Alfven waves, they do give an indication of the importance of Landua damping for longer parallel wavelength waves such as field line resonances. 26 refs., 5 fig.

• OSTI ID: 255039
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research Journal Issue: A3 Vol. 101; ISSN 0148-0227; ISSN JGREA2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
ALFVEN WAVES
AURORAE
DISPERSION RELATIONS
IONOSPHERE
LANDAU DAMPING
SHEAR