Gyrophase-bunched Ions and Low Frequency Waves in the Earth's Foreshock: Production Mechanisms

Physics

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2134 Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, 2154 Planetary Bow Shocks, 2159 Plasma Waves And Turbulence, 2752 Mhd Waves And Instabilities, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

Gyrating Backstreaming ions displaying gyrophase-bunching around the local magnetic field are frequently observed by the CLUSTER CIS experiment upstream of the Earth's bow shock in association with quasi-monochromatic low-frequency waves. The analysis of the 3D angular distributions indicates that field-aligned beam ions are observed at the onset of each event. Later on, the angular distribution is gyrophase-bunched and peaked at a nearly constant pitch-angle value during the interval of wave occurrence. The waves are left-handed (in the spacecraft frame) and propagate nearly along the ambient magnetic field; we have found that they are fast mode waves in cyclotron resonance with (and likely generated by) the field-aligned beam observed just upstream. By solving the linear Maxwell-Vlasov dispersion relation with the observed parameters as input we confirm that the field-aligned beam drives an ion-ion instability at the observed frequency and wavenumber. Two types of gyrophase-bunched ion events can be observed. For the first type, the pitch-angle distribution is peaked at α 0 ˜ θ BN. This is consistent with specular reflection at the shock and the observed particle flux-modulation is interpreted in term of θ BN changes at the shock due to the low frequency waves. For the second type, the gyrophase bunching is due to the nonlinear coherent disruption of the field-aligned beam by the low frequency waves through cyclotron resonant wave-particle interaction: the pitch-angle α 0 of the ion distribution is explained by a wave-trapping process and is directly dependent on the amplitude of the waves. From a statistical study of their occurrence, we discuss the relative importance of these two mechanisms in the foreshock.

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