Propagation of whistler waves driven by fine structured ion beams in the magnetotail

Journal Article · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Journal of Geophysical Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/93JA03240· OSTI ID:255687

Burinskaya, T ^[1]; Schriver, D; Ashour-Abdalla, M ^[2]

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1. Space Research Institute, Moscow (Russian Federation)
2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

In a previous paper, which examined the propagation of low-frequency whistler waves generated by ion beams in the Earth`s plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL), it was found that whistler waves driven in the PSBL are focused toward the central plasma sheet due to the global magnetotail inhomogeneities; this finding may help explain the observations of magnetic noise bursts in the tail. In this paper the same phenomenon is examined, but this time a much more realistic model is used for the ion beams in the PSBL. While the PSBL has been modeled as a solid, homogeneous ion beam with a width of one Earth radius, observations and theoretical considerations have shown that PSBL ion beams actually have a decreasing velocity profile toward the plasma sheet and that the density of the beams within the PSBL can vary locally. The authors consider again the propagation and generation of electromagnetic waves but in the presence of fine structured ion beams in the PSBL. Their results show that whistler waves, generated quasi-parallel to the background magnetic field, can be trapped locally within small spatial regions where the ion beam density is enhanced compared to the density of the adjacent PSBL region. Wave spectra and nonlinear saturation mechanisms are discussed. 38 refs., 9 figs.

• OSTI ID: 255687
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research Journal Issue: A5 Vol. 99; ISSN JGREA2; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
ION BEAMS
MAGNETOTAIL
PLASMA SHEET
WAVE PROPAGATION
WHISTLERS