EXOS‐B/Siple Station VLF wave‐particle interaction experiments: 1. General description and wave‐particle correlations

Abstract

In situ measurements of both energetic particles and VLF waves have been carried out in a joint program involving the Japanese satellite EXOS‐B and the Siple Station VLF transmitter. A general description of the experiment is given as well as some results concerning wave‐particle correlations. Detailed analysis of the observed wave characteristics is given in a companion paper. Correlations of electron flux and pitch angle anisotropy in the energy range from 85 eV to 6.9 keV with waves in a range from 300 Hz to 9 kHz are examined. These electrons sometimes have a pitch angle distribution with a peak flux at 90° pitch angle (so‐called pancake distribution). On five passes out of a total of 50 during the summer campaign in 1979, the energy of the electrons that showed a high pitch angle anisotropy shifted upward as the satellite moved into the plasmasphere, crossing the plasmapause in the equatorial region. In two cases out of five, strong Siple signals were observed in the geomagnetic equatorial region just outside the plasmapause, in association with such a pancake pitch angle distribution of electrons. The Siple signals are most likely amplified by the cyclotron instability due to the high pitch angle anisotropy (HPAA), although the flux of resonant electrons was relatively small. For three other cases of HPAA, the satellite location was so far away from the Siple meridian that the signal level, even if amplified, was too weak to be detected by the satellite. Emissions associated with Siple signals were detected on five (two equatorial and three high latitude) passes, which were all confined on 6 days after a large magnetic storm. On the days when the Siple triggered emissions were observed, the pitch angle anisotropy was low, but the electron flux at resonant energies in the equatorial region was four or five times larger than that on other non‐triggering days in all energy channels from 85 eV to 6.9 keV.