Counter-Streaming Beams and Flat-top Electron Distributions Observed with Langmuir, Whistler and Compressional Alfvén Waves in Earth's Magnetic Tail

Details Counter-Streaming Beams and Flat-top Electron Distributions Observed with Langmuir, Whistler and Compressional Alfvén Waves in Earth's Magnetic Tail Counter-Streaming Beams and Flat-top Electron Distributions Observed with Langmuir, Whistler and Compressional Alfvén Waves in Earth's Magnetic Tail

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsm24a..08t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SM24A-08

Physics

7829 Kinetic Waves And Instabilities, 7839 Nonlinear Phenomena (4400, 6944), 7845 Particle Acceleration, 7867 Wave/Particle Interactions (2483, 6984)

Scientific paper

Low energy (< 1keV) counter-streaming and flat-top electron distributions accompanying fast ion bulk speed flowing tailward (~350 km/s) have been observed by Cluster spacecraft in the vicinity of the current sheet in Earth's magnetic tail (-18 Re). These distributions were detected simultaneously with Langmuir (2-6 kHz) and whistler mode (0-50 Hz) waves. The streaming and thermal energies of the electron beams vary from ~150 to 800 eV and ~50 to 100 eV where the higher values correspond to measurements made closer to the current sheet (CS). In the central CS, the electron distributions are isotropic and the beams disappear as do the Langmuir and high frequency (8-50 Hz) whistler waves. At the edges of this region, the magnetic field (B) and density gradients are strong and can increase the propagation angle of the whistler waves that preferentially propagate parallel or anti-parallel to B. Thus, the strong magnetic and density gradients could prevent the whistler waves from propagating deeper into the CS. Instead, low frequency (< 2 Hz) whistler waves (compressional Alfvén waves) are observed with perpendicular or oblique wave vectors. These Alfvén waves fade away in the central part of the central CS where the plasma beta (β=2μ0nkT/B2) reaches ~ 100. Theoretical explanations for these observations must take into account that ions are non-magnetized and that dynamics occur on scales smaller than the ion Larmor radius.

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