Experimental studies on the propagation of whistler-mode waves in a magnetized plasma structure with a non-uniform density

Propagation of whistler-mode waves in a magnetized plasma structure is investigated in the Keda linear magnetized plasma device.The magnetized plasma structure has its density peak in the center,and the background magnetic field is homogeneous along the axial direction.A whistlermode wave with a frequency of 0.3 times of electron cyclotron frequency(fce)is launched into the plasma structure.The wave normal angle(WNA)is about 25°,and the wavefront exhibits a wedge structure.During propagation of the whistler wave,both the propagating angle and WNA slowly approach zero,and then the wave is converged toward the center of the structure.Therefore,the wave tends to be trapped in the plasma structure.The results present observational evidence of the propagation of a whistler-mode wave trapped in the enhanced-density structure in a laboratory plasma.This trapping effect is consistent with satellite observations in the inner magnetosphere.

Effects of electron trapping on nonlinear electron-acoustic waves excited by an electron beam via particle-in-cell simulations

By performing one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, the nonlinear effects of electronacoustic(EA) waves are investigated in a multispecies plasma, whose constituents are hot electrons, cold electrons, and beam electrons with immobile neutralized positive ions. Numerical analyses have identified that EA waves with a sufficiently large amplitude tend to trap cold electrons. Because EA waves are dispersive, where the wave modes with different wavenumbers have different phase velocities, the trapping may lead to the mixing of cold electrons. The cold electrons finally get thermalized or heated. The investigation also shows that the excited EA waves give rise to a broad range of wave frequencies, which may be helpful for understanding the broadband-electrostatic-noise spectrum in the Earth’s auroral region.

Ray-tracing simulations of whistler-mode wave propagation in different rescaled dipole magnetic fields

Kinetic simulation is a powerful tool to study the excitation and propagation of whistler-mode waves in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere.This method typically applies a scaled-down dipole magnetic field to save computational time.However,it remains unknown whether whistler wave propagation in the scaled-down dipole field is consistent with that in the realistic dipole field.In this work,we develop a ray-tracing code with a scalable dipole magnetic field to address this concern.The simulation results show that parallel whistler waves at different frequencies gradually become oblique after leaving the equator and propagate in different raypaths in a dipole magnetic field.During their propagation,the higher frequency waves tend to have larger wave normal angles at the same latitude.Compared with the wave propagation in a realistic dipole field,the wave raypath and wave normal remain the same,whereas the wave amplification or attenuation is smaller because of the shorter propagation time in a scaled-down dipole field.Our study provides significant guidance for kinetic simulations of whistler-mode waves.

为什么合声波成为了弥散极光形成的主因

Earth’s diffuse aurora(structureless auroras,5-15 s pulsations and microbursts)occurs over a broad latitude range,which arises from the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the upper atmosphere[1].Diffuse aurora exists for most of the time,and intensifies during geo magnetically active periods[2].Although generally not visible to the naked eyes,it is the major source of energy input into the Earth’s nightside upper atmosphere[3].During magnetospheric substorms,~100 eV to 1 keV plasmasheet particles are injected into the midnight sector magnetosphere.Due to the conservation of the particles’first two adiabatic invariants,the particles are energized to~10-100 keV energies.A mechanism that violates the first adiabatic invariant of electrons is required to scatter them to enter the atmospheric loss cone(a small cone of angle~3°wide at the equator)[4].