The effect of ULF compressional modes and field line resonances on relativistic electron dynamics

Physics

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Energetic Trapped Particles, Radiation Belts

Scientific paper

The adiabatic, drift-resonant interaction between relativistic, equatorially mirroring electrons and a ULF compressional wave that couples to a field line resonance (FLR) is modelled. Investigations are focussed on the effect of azimuthal localisation in wave amplitude on the electron dynamics. The ULF wave fields on the equatorial plane (r, φ) are modelled using a box model [Zhu, X., Kivelson, M.G., 1988. Analytic formulation and quantitative solutions of the coupled ULF wave problem. J. Geophys. Res. 93(A8), 8602 8612], and azimuthal variations are introduced by adding a discrete spectrum of azimuthal modes. Electron trajectories are calculated using drift equations assuming constant magnetic moment M, and the evolution of the distribution function f(r,φ,M,t) from an assumed initial condition is calculated by assuming f remains constant along electron trajectories. The azimuthal variation in ULF wave structure is shown to have a profound effect on the electron dynamics once a threshold in azimuthal variation is exceeded. Electron energy changes occur that are significantly larger than the trapping width corresponding to the maximum wave amplitude. We show how this can be explained in terms of the overlap of multiple resonance islands, produced by the introduction of azimuthal amplitude variation. This anomalous energisation is characterised by performing parameter scans in the modulation amplitude ɛ and the wave electric field. A simple parametric model for the threshold is shown to give reasonable agreement with the threshold observed in the electron dynamics model. Above the threshold, the radial transport averaged over φ is shown to become diffusive in nature over a timescale of about 25 wave periods. The anomalous energisation described in this paper occurs over the first 15 wave periods, indicating the importance of convective transport in this process.

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