The effects of density gradients on the convective amplification of upper hybrid waves in the magnetosphere |
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| Authors: | John Engel Charles Kennel |
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| Institution: | University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA |
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| Abstract: | Intense (? 10 mVm?1) electrostatic plasma waves near the upper hybrid frequency have been observed between ± 50° magnetic latitude during spacecraft plasmapause crossings. We present wave growth rate and three-dimensional convective amplification calculations which suggest how intense upper hybrid (IUH) events can occur over such a wide range of latitudes. The effects of wave refraction are shown to be crucial to the proper calculation of convective amplification.We first calculate upper hybrid wave growth for an IUH event at 10° MLAT during which a complete electron distribution function with a loss cone feature was measured simultaneously with the waves. We show that a parallel density gradient may be necessary to account for the observed amplification. Without such a density gradient, the dipole magnetic field gradient would quickly refract the wave vector component parallel to the local field lines out of the unstable region in wave vector space. Upon mapping the distribution function observed at 10° MLAT to other latitudes by conserving the electrons' magnetic moments, we then find that the mapped distribution could produce large amplification at higher latitudes only if there is an appropriate parallel density gradient. At the equator, the long magnetic field gradient scale length enables large amplitudes to be attained without a density gradient.The results of our UH ray tracing analysis are related to theories and observations of magnetospheric continuum radiation. |
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