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Title: Second harmonic poloidal waves observed by Van Allen Probes in the dusk-midnight sector

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research. Space Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023770· OSTI ID:1402662
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [7]
  1. The Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Lab., Laurel, MD (United States)
  2. Fundamental Technologies, LLC, Lawrence, KS (United States)
  3. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
  4. NOAA, Boulder, CO (United States)
  5. The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA (United States)
  6. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  7. New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ (United States)

This paper presents observations of ultralow-frequency (ULF) waves from Van Allen Probes. The event that generated the ULF waves occurred 2 days after a minor geomagnetic storm during a geomagnetically quiet time. Narrowband pulsations with a frequency of about 7 mHz with moderate amplitudes were registered in the premidnight sector when Probe A was passing through an enhanced density region near geosynchronous orbit. Probe B, which passed through the region earlier, did not detect the narrowband pulsations but only broadband noise. Despite the single-spacecraft measurements, we were able to determine various wave properties. We find that the observed waves are a second harmonic poloidal mode propagating westward with an azimuthal wave number estimated to be ~100; the magnetic field fluctuations have a finite compressional component due to small but finite plasma beta (~0.1); the energetic proton fluxes in the energy ranging from above 10 keV to about 100 keV exhibit pulsations with the same frequency as the poloidal mode and energy-dependent phase delays relative to the azimuthal component of the electric field, providing evidence for drift-bounce resonance; and the second harmonic poloidal mode may have been excited via the drift-bounce resonance mechanism with free energy fed by the inward radial gradient of ~80 keV protons. Here, we show that the wave active region is where the plume overlaps the outer edge of ring current and suggest that this region can have a wide longitudinal extent near geosynchronous orbit.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1402662
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-28132; TRN: US1703024
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Space Physics, Vol. 122, Issue 3; ISSN 2169-9380
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 35 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Excitation of Storm Time Pc5 ULF Waves by Ring Current Ions Based on the Drift‐Kinetic Simulation journal February 2019
Cold Plasmaspheric Electrons Affected by ULF Waves in the Inner Magnetosphere: A Van Allen Probes Statistical Study journal October 2019
Eastward Propagating Second Harmonic Poloidal Waves Triggered by Temporary Outward Gradient of Proton Phase Space Density: Van Allen Probe A Observation journal December 2019
Pc4‐5 Poloidal ULF Wave Observed in the Dawnside Plasmaspheric Plume journal December 2019
Observational evidence of the drift-mirror plasma instability in Earth's inner magnetosphere journal April 2019

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