Interaction of particles with ion cyclotron waves and magnetosonic waves. Observations from GEOS 1 and GEOS 2

Abstract

Coordinated observations involving ion composition, thermal plasma, energetic particle, and ULF magnetic field data from GEOS 1 and 2 often reveal the presence of electromagnetic ion cyclotron and magnetosonic waves, which are distinguished by their respective polarization characteristics and frequency spectra. The ion cyclotron waves are identified by a magnetic field perturbation that lies in a plane perpendicular to the Earth's magnetic field B 0 and propagate along B 0. They are associated with the abundance of cold He + in the presence of anisotropic pitch angle distributions of ions having energies E > 20 keV, and were observed at frequencies near the He + gyrofrequency. The magnetosonic waves are characterized by a magnetic field perturbation parallel to B 0 and thus seem to be propagating perpendicular to the Earth's magnetic field. They often occur at harmonics (not always including the fundamental) at the proton gyrofrequency and are associated with phase-space-density distributions that peak at energies E ∼ 5–30 keV and at a pitch angle of 90°. Such a ring-like distribution is shown to excite instability in the magnetosonic mode near harmonics of the proton gyrofrequency. Magnetosonic waves are associated in other cases with sharp spatial gradients in energetic ion intensity. Such gradients are encountered in the early afternoon sector (as a consequence of the drift shell distortion caused by the convection electric field) and could likewise constitute a source of free energy for plasma instabilities.