Mass Density Inferred From Toroidal Wave Frequencies And its Comparison to Electron Density

Details Mass Density Inferred From Toroidal Wave Frequencies And its Comparison to Electron Density Mass Density Inferred From Toroidal Wave Frequencies And its Comparison to Electron Density

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufmsm12a..03t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #SM12A-03

Physics

2487 Wave Propagation (6934), 2752 Mhd Waves And Instabilities, 2768 Plasmasphere, 2788 Storms And Substorms

Scientific paper

The frequency of standing Alfven waves depends on the plasma mass density and this fact has been used since the late 1950s to infer the mass density from observed ULF waves. The technique is valuable in magnetospheric physics because particle experiments usually cannot determine the total ion mass density. The ULF technique was revitalized in the early 1990s when the cross phase technique was developed to provide accurate standing wave frequencies from observations on the ground. It is important to note that reliable conversion from the frequency to the density depends on a number of factors. First, the field line configuration needs to be known. Second, a functional form needs to be given for the variation of the mass density along the field line. Third, the harmonic number of the observed waves needs to be determined. Concerning these factors, spacecraft observations have several advantages: the local magnetic field can be measured (although at a single point), multiharmonic toroidal waves are routinely detected to allow modeling of the mass density distribution along the field line, and the harmonic mode can be unambiguously determined using combined electric and magnetic field observations. In this presentation we use data from the CRRES satellite to illustrate the ULF technique during a period of high geomagnetic activity. We discuss the contribution of heavy ions to the storm time ring current by comparing inferred values of the mass density from the ULF technique with values of the electron number density inferred from plasma wave data.

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