Observations of a unique type of ULF wave by low-altitude Space Technology 5 satellites

Details Observations of a unique type of ULF wave by low-altitude Space Technology 5 satellites Observations of a unique type of ULF wave by low-altitude Space Technology 5 satellites

Aug 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011jgra..11608203l&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 116, Issue A8, CiteID A08203

Physics

Plasma Physics

Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere: Inner, Space Plasma Physics: Mhd Waves And Instabilities (2149, 2752, 6050), Space Plasma Physics: Wave/Particle Interactions (2483, 6984)

Scientific paper

We report a unique type of ULF waves observed by low-altitude Space Technology 5 (ST-5) constellation mission. ST-5 is a three-microsatellite constellation deployed into a 300 × 4500 km dawn-dusk and Sun-synchronous polar orbit with 105.6° inclination angle. Because of the Earth's rotation and the dipole tilt effect, the spacecraft's dawn-dusk orbit track can reach as low as subauroral latitudes during the course of a day. Whenever the spacecraft traverse the dayside closed field line region at subauroral latitudes, they frequently observe strong transverse oscillations at 30-200 mHz, or in the Pc2-3 frequency range. These Pc2-3 waves appear as wave packets with durations in the order of 5-10 min. As the maximum separations of the ST-5 spacecraft are in the order of 10 min, the three ST-5 satellites often observe very similar wave packets, implying these wave oscillations occur in a localized region. The coordinated ground-based magnetic observations at the spacecraft footprints, however, do not see waves in the Pc2-3 band; instead, the waves appear to be the common Pc4-5 waves associated with field line resonances. We suggest that these unique Pc2-3 waves seen by ST-5 are in fact the Doppler-shifted Pc4-5 waves as a result of rapid traverse of the spacecraft across the resonant field lines azimuthally at low altitudes. The observations with the unique spacecraft dawn-dusk orbits at proper altitudes and magnetic latitudes reveal the azimuthal characteristics of field line resonances.

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