Electrostatic plasma waves and HF auroral hiss generated at low altitude

Abstract

Large‐amplitude (10 to 100 μV m−1 Hz−½) natural radio emissions in a wide frequency range (100 kHz up to 2 MHz) are frequently observed on board the AUREOL/ARCAD 3 satellite at high latitude and at altitudes between 400 and 2000 km. The simultaneous measurement of the local cold plasma density allows the identification of cutoff and resonance frequencies. Three different kinds of wave are observed: (1) electrostatic emissions near the local value of the plasma frequency (fp), (2) electromagnetic whistler mode emissions, sometimes associated with type (1) emissions, and (3) electromagnetic Z mode emissions, also associated with type 1 emissions, but occurring more rarely than the whistler mode emissions and then only when fp is greater than the electron cyclotron frequency (fce). These emissions are always associated with high levels of ELF electrostatic turbulence and a high flux of low‐energy precipitating electrons, extending in energy down to the lower limit of the detectors (∼100 eV). The statistical distribution of the emissions in geomagnetic coordinates shows an occurrence greater than 80% in the polar cusp region and between 25% and 60% in the nightside auroral zone. A generation mechanism for such emissions is proposed, based on the calculation of the growth rate of the kinetic Cherenkov instability, associated with a beamlike suprathermal tail in the parallel distribution of the bulk electron population. In particular, suprathermal, downward electron beams of about 100–200 eV energy, with a thermal spread of the same order, are found to be responsible for the generation of whistler mode and Z mode HF emissions in a source region extending down to 1000 km of altitude. It is suggested that such intense radio emissions should be considered as one of the energy dissipation processes resulting from magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling, through interdependent electrodynamic mechanisms such as current systems, parallel anomalous resistivity, plasma turbulence, energy diffusion, and heating.