Title: Penetration of magnetosonic waves into the plasmasphere observed by the Van Allen Probes

Abstract

During the small storm on 14–15 April 2014, Van Allen Probe A measured a continuously distinct proton ring distribution and enhanced magnetosonic (MS) waves along its orbit outside the plasmapause. Inside the plasmasphere, strong MS waves were still present but the distinct proton ring distribution was falling steeply with distance. We adopt a sum of subtracted bi-Maxwellian components to model the observed proton ring distribution and simulate the wave trajectory and growth. MS waves at first propagate toward lower L shells outside the plasmasphere, with rapidly increasing path gains related to the continuous proton ring distribution. The waves then gradually cross the plasmapause into the deep plasmasphere, with almost unchanged path gains due to the falling proton ring distribution and higher ambient density. These results present the first report on how MS waves penetrate into the plasmasphere with the aid of the continuous proton ring distributions during weak geomagnetic activities.

Authors:

Xiao, Fuliang ^[1]; Zhou, Qinghua ^[1]; He, Yihua ^[1]; Yang, Chang ^[1]; Liu, Si ^[1]; Baker, D. N. ^[2]; Spence, H. E. ^[3]; Reeves, Geoffrey D.  ^[4];

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Funsten, Herbert O.  ^[4];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-6817-1039"
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Blake, J. B. ^[5]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Changsha Univ. of Science and Technology, Changsha (China). School of Physics and Electronic Sciences
2. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Lab. for Atmospheric and Space Physics
3. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States). Inst. for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space
4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
5. Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Publication Date:

2015-09-11

Research Org.:

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

OSTI Identifier:

1402599

Report Number(s):

LA-UR-15-28235
Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276; TRN: US1702875

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC52-06NA25396; 921647; 967399; NAS5-01072

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Geophysical Research Letters

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 42; Journal Issue: 18; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; 58 GEOSCIENCES; Heliospheric and Magnetospheric Physics; Van Allen Probe results; magnetosonic waves; wave-particle interaction; proton ring distribution; radiation belts; geomagnetic storms