Ray tracing study of electromagnetic ion cyclotron （EMIC） waves is conducted based on a realistic plasma density model. The simulation result shows that EMIC waves propagate away from the equatorial source region to higher latitudes basically along geomagnetic field lines, and are reflected at the region where their frequency matches the local bi-ion frequency. H＋ band suffers H＋-He＋ bi-ion frequency reflection at lower latitudes, whereas He＋ band suffers He＋-O＋ bi-ion frequency reflection at higher latitudes. Moreover, the concentration of heavy ions slightly affects the bi-ion frequencies and then slightly determines the reflection location of ray paths of EMIC waves. The current results present the first detailed study on the propagation characteristics of EMIC waves associated with bi-ion frequencies.
In this study, we analyze Cluster observations of whistler-mode chorus and hiss waves during the event of August 19-21, 2006. Chorus is present outside the plasmasphere and hiss occurs inside the plasmasphere. Using a recently constructed plasma boundary layer model, we perform a ray-tracing study on the propagation of chorus. Numerical results show that chorus can penetrate into the plasmasphere through the plasma boundary layer, evolving into hiss. The current data analysis and modeling provide a further observational support for the previous findings that chorus is the origin of plasmaspheric hiss.
We provide correlated observations of enhanced dayside whistler-mode waves and energetic electron acceleration collected by the CLUSTER and GOES satellites during the 23～24 September 2001 storm. Energetic （〉0.6 MeV） electron fluxes are found to increase significantly during the recovery phase and the main phase, by a factor of～50 higher than the prestorm level. These high electron fluxes occur when strong dayside whistler-mode waves are present. Two-dimensional （2D） numerical simulations are carried out and the results demonstrate that the dayside whistler-mode wave can contribute to such enhancements in electron flux within 24 h, consistent with the observation.
The evolution of energetic outer zone electron fluxes during the strong magnetic storm on September 28, 2002 is investigated based on the observations of SAMPEX and GOES-10 satellites. The observations of both satellites showed that energetic electron fluxes increased significantly during the storm recovery phase, and reached the maximum on October 6. The 1.5–14 MeV and 2.5–14 MeV electron fluxes observed by SAMPEX peaked around L=3.5 with values of 6×10 2 cm -2 s -1 sr -1 keV -1 and 5×10 3 cm -2 s -1 sr -1 keV -1 , which were about 10 and 8 times the pre-storm values. At the geostationary orbit, the >0.6 MeV and >2 MeV electron fluxes observed by GOES-10 showed enhancement up to 50 and 30 times. The plasma parameters and whistler-mode chorus waves in the outer radiation belt are also analyzed based on the data from Cluster C3 satellite. Cluster C3 satellite went through the outer radiation belt twice from 1 October to 4 October, and observed whistler-mode chorus waves with high intensity (10 -5 –10 -4 nT 2 Hz -1 ). Numerical calculations indicated that the observed chorus waves were in gyro-resonance with the radiation belt electrons. The current observations and calculations provide new evidence for that the gyro-resonance with chorus waves contribute significantly to the buildup of energetic outer zone electron fluxes during storms.
HE ZhaoGuoXIAO FuLiangZONG QiuGangWANG YongFuCHEN LiangXuYUE ChaoZHANG Sai
