Wavelength Measurements of Electron Cyclotron Harmonic Waves in Earth's Magnetotail

Electron cyclotron harmonic waves (ECH) play a key role in scattering and precipitation of plasma sheet electrons. Previous analysis on the resonant interaction between ECH waves and electrons assumed that these waves are generated by a loss cone distribution and propagate nearly perpendicular to the background magnetic field. Recent spacecraft observations, however, have demonstrated that such waves can also be generated by low energy electron beams and propagate at moderately oblique angles . To quantify the effects of this newly observed ECH wave mode on electron dynamics in Earth's magnetosphere, we use quasi‐linear theory to calculate the associated electron pitch angle diffusion coefficient. Utilizing THEMIS spacecraft measurements, we analyze in detail a few representative events of beam‐driven ECH waves in the plasma sheet and the outer radiation belt. Based on the observed wave properties and the hot plasma dispersion relation of these waves, we calculate their bounce‐averaged pitch angle, momentum and mixed diffusion coefficients. We find that these waves most efficiently scatter low‐energy electrons (10–500 eV) toward larger pitch angles, on time scales of to seconds. In contrast, loss‐cone‐driven ECH waves most efficiently scatter higher‐energy electrons (500 eV–5 keV) toward lower pitch‐angles. Importantly, beam‐driven ECH waves can effectively scatter ionospheric electron outflows out of the loss cone near the magnetic equator. As a result, these outflows become trapped in the magnetosphere, forming a near‐field‐aligned anisotropic electron population. Our work highlights the importance of ECH waves, particularly beam‐driven modes, in regulating magnetosphere‐ionosphere particle and energy coupling.

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves are one of the most common plasma waves in the Earth's magnetosphere, and they are considered to be excited by the electron loss‐cone distributions near the magnetic equator. Using the Magnetospheric Multiscale data, we report an unusual event of ECH waves at L = ∼12.4 and MLT = ∼16.0 hr, where the ECH waves are locally excited inside non‐propagating magnetic oscillations, that is, mirror mode structures. The observation reveals that the mirror mode structures are generated by anisotropic ions ( ∼ 1.3 – 1.7), and electron mirror loss‐cone distributions are formed due to the magnetic configuration of the mirror mode structures. Combing with the linear instability analysis, we confirm that the ECH waves are locally excited by the electron mirror loss‐cone distributions inside the mirror mode structures. Therefore, we propose that the mirror mode structures provide another potential source region for ECH waves in the Earth's magnetosphere.

Electron Cyclotron Harmonic (ECH) waves and whistler waves are common plasma waves in the Earth's magnetosphere, and they play an important role in regulating electron dynamics. Recent observations reveal that whistler waves can suppress ECH waves by reshaping the electron distribution, but a comprehensive study on the effects of various plasma parameters on their interplay is still lacking. Using a two‐dimensional (2‐D) particle‐in‐cell (PIC) simulation model, we have thoroughly studied the evolution of ECH waves under various initial plasma conditions by relaxing anisotropic hot electrons with a loss‐cone distribution. Overall, ECH waves are significantly suppressed once whistler waves appear, and their damping rate is strongly dependent on the amplitude of whistler waves, which is positively correlated with the hot electron proportion and the temperature anisotropy. Moreover, the final amplitude ratio R between ECH and whistler waves tends to increase with a higher hot electron proportion , lower temperature anisotropy , and higher ratio of plasma frequency to electron cyclotron frequency . However, it shows little dependence on the size of loss‐cone width and parallel temperature . This study not only supports that the suppression of ECH waves by whistler waves is a common phenomenon but also provides some new insights into understanding the global distribution of ECH waves in the Earth's magnetosphere.

There are two main theories for the origin of diffuse auroral electron precipitation: precipitation by electrostatic ECH waves and precipitation by whistler mode waves. Here we analyze a case event where whistler mode hiss, chorus, and ECH waves are intensified during a weak substorm injection event to identify the source of particle precipitation. Examination of the particle data shows that there are three sources of free energy: a temperature anisotropy, a loss cone, and a pancake distribution. Instability analysis shows that the temperature anisotropy excites whistler mode hiss whereas both the temperature anisotropy and the pancake distribution contribute to the excitation of chorus. ECH waves are driven unstable by the loss cone. Wave propagation studies show that the path integrated gain of hiss and chorus is almost unaffected by changes in the depth of the loss cone, whereas ECH waves are very sensitive. Analysis of the changes in the resonant energy during propagation shows that the hiss resonates with electrons above a few keV while chorus resonates below a few hundred eV. As a result, neither hiss nor chorus are likely to cause significant electron precipitation from a few hundred eV to a few keV for this event. On the other hand, ECH waves resonate with electrons in the energy range between that for chorus and hiss. ECH waves can scatter electrons with pitch angles of up to 80° into the loss cone. We conclude that ECH waves are responsible for the formation of the pancake distribution and are probably the main component of diffuse auroral precipitation during this event. We suggest that substorm‐injected electrons are responsible for the intensification of hiss and ECH waves and that rapid scattering of electrons by ECH waves forms the pancake distribution which then excites chorus. We also suggest that rapid pitch angle scattering by ECH waves could be responsible for double frequency banded chorus emissions.

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves in Earth's magnetotail have long been considered a potential driver of diffuse aurora. Because of observational constraints prohibiting theoretical progress, however, no consensus on the plasma conditions that enable excitation and observation of these waves has emerged, especially in the outer magnetosphere. Intense ECH waves are often observed upon arrival of fast earthward flows, which in turn are correlated with particle injections, and dipolarization fronts (DFs) in the plasma sheet. Using THEMIS observations, we investigate the relationship between such waves and electron injections, relevant for linear growth rates, and DFs, relevant for wave propagation. We find that >70% of ECH waves are correlated with injections and >50% of the waves are correlated with DFs. The median time lag for ECH wave onsets relative to local particle injection and DF onset is ~500 s and ~60 s, respectively. When ECH waves are correlated with both DFs and injections, injections are observed to occur first, then DFs, shortly followed by ECH waves. We discuss possible mechanisms leading to the intensification of ECH waves under different dynamic conditions, which helps to elucidate excitation of these waves in the outer magnetosphere.

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves are electrostatic emissions between the ECHs and play a dominant role for precipitating energetic electrons in the magnetotail. Statistically, the ECH wave intensity is stronger at nightside and dawnside than at dayside and duskside. In this study, we, for the first time, simulate the global ECH wave evolution during a geomagnetic storm event using Ring current Atmosphere interactions Model with Self‐Consistent Magnetic field (RAM‐SCB) combined with a linear growth rate solver. We find that the simulation results are generally consistent with the statistical and real‐time observations. The ECH wave instability is much stronger at nightside and dawnside, compared to the instability at dayside and duskside. Before a geomagnetic storm (quiet time), the unstable regions of the ECH waves lie beyond with a weak instability level. During the main phase of a geomagnetic storm, the unstable regions can extend to a lower altitude ( ) with a strong instability level. During the recovery phase, the unstable regions return to . We also find that the inner boundary of unstable ECH wave regions is coincident with the plasmapause location during the whole geomagnetic storm event.

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves are effective in precipitating electrons into the loss cone to form diffuse aurora. Recent observations have shown that ECH waves at Earth could exhibit frequency chirping, which is an interesting feature of various plasma waves and whose mechanism is under intensive research. Whether chirping of ECH waves is also present in other planetary magnetospheres, however, is unknown. In this paper, we report the first observation of quasi‐periodic ECH waves with frequency chirping at Saturn using Cassini data. The identified six falling tone and one rising tone ECH wave events occur at near the magnetic equator. The duration of ECH wave chirping elements lasts from seconds to minutes. Our findings suggest that frequency chirping of ECH waves could be observed at other planetary magnetosphere, and are useful to understand the fundamental mechanisms of frequency chirping of various plasma waves.

To obtain a comprehensive global morphology of the ECH waves, we combine the high-quality observations from the recent satellites of Van Allen Probes, Arase, and Magnetospheric Multiscale from 2012 to 2022. With the well-accumulated data, we find that ECH waves can be observed over a broad spatial region with significant asymmetry. Primarily, ECH waves can be observed from L= ~2.5 and extend to L = ~15 on the nightside while dayside waves are compressed closer to the Earth. On the nightside, the waves are observed more frequently at low L with strong wave strength. As L increases, both wave occurrence and amplitude decline. It is noteworthy that ECH waves exhibit a double peak pattern at L = ~4-6 and 8-12 on the dayside, and a dip of occurrence at L = 6-8, which might indicate two dominant driving mechanisms of ECH waves on the inner and outer magnetosphere, respectively. At low L, ECH waves are observed near the equator, while they can be observed extensively over the magnetic latitude of ~-40° — 40° at higher L. Compared with the nightside, the magnetic latitude sensitivity to the increase of L is more dramatic on the dayside. Furthermore, at low latitudes, ECH waves can be observed with broad MLT coverage and have strong wave amplitude at low L. For high latitudes, the waves occur at higher L, with higher occurrence on the dayside while stronger wave strength on the nightside. Our results provide a new insight into the generating and propagating mechanism of ECH waves.

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves play an important role in the magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling. They are usually considered to be generated by the Bernstein‐mode instability with electron loss cone distributions. By analyzing the Van Allen Probes wave data, we present the direct evidence of the nonlinear interactions between ECH waves in the magnetosphere. Substorm‐injected electrons excite primary ECH waves in a series of structureless bands between multiples of the electron gyrofrequency. Nonlinear interactions between the primary ECH waves produce secondary waves at sum‐ and difference‐frequencies of the primary waves. Our results suggest that the nonlinear wave‐wave interactions can redistribute the primary ECH wave energy over a broader frequency range and hence potentially affect the magnetospheric electrons over a broader range of pitch angles and energies.

Electrostatic Cyclotron Harmonic (ECH) waves have been considered a potential cause of pitch angle scattering of electrons in the energy range from a few hundred eV to tens of keV. Theoretical studies have suggested that scattering by ECH waves is enhanced at lower pitch angles near the loss cone. Due to the insufficient angular resolution of particle detectors, it has been a great challenge to reveal ECH‐driven scattering based on electron measurements. This study reports on variations in electron pitch angle distributions associated with ECH wave activity observed by the Arase satellite. The variation is characterized by a decrease in fluxes near the loss cone, and energy and pitch angle dependence of the flux decrease is consistent with the region of enhanced pitch angle scattering rates predicted by the quasi‐linear diffusion theory. This study provides direct evidence for energy‐pitch angle dependence of pitch angle scattering driven by ECH waves.

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves are known to precipitate plasma sheet electrons into the upper atmosphere and generate diffuse aurorae. In this study, we report quasiperiodic rising (3 events) and falling tone (22 events) ECH waves observed by Van Allen Probes and evaluate their properties. These rising and falling tone ECH waves prefer to occur during quiet geomagnetic conditions over the dusk to midnight sector in relatively high‐density (10–80 cm−3) regions. Their repetition periods increase with increasing L shell at L < 6, ranging from ∼60 to 110 s. The wave element duration varies from 10 to 130 s peaking at ∼40 s and the chirping rate peaks at ∼50 (∼−50) Hz/s for rising (falling) tones. Our findings reveal intriguing features of the ECH wave properties, which provide new insights into their generation and potential effects on electron precipitation.

Although electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves are the primary contributor to plasma sheet electron scattering loss, experimental verification of their most widely accepted excitation mechanism, loss‐cone instability, has been lacking for decades. Using 10 years of time history of events and macroscale interactions during substorms satellite observations, we investigate ECH wave properties near dipolarization fronts, the predominant source of such waves. To our surprise we find that more than 30% of observed ECH waves have moderately oblique (∼70°) wave normal angles (WNA), much less than the ∼85° expected from classical loss‐cone instability. These moderately oblique WNA ECH waves carry a strong field‐aligned electric field that is used to identify them. They are often observed with cold, dense electrons that exhibit enhanced parallel flux at a few hundred eV energy, which suggests that low‐energy counterstreaming beams (likely of ionospheric origin) might be their free energy source. By solving the linear dispersion relation for parameters representative of such plasma sheet electron distributions, we confirm that ECH waves at WNA ∼ 70° can indeed be driven unstable by such beams. Our work reveals a previously unknown excitation mechanism for ECH waves and exposes the need for quantifying the conditions for and relative importance of beam‐driven waves compared to those excited by the loss‐cone instability in Earth's plasma sheet.

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) and whistler chorus waves are recognized as the two mechanisms responsible for the resonant wave‐particle interactions necessary to precipitate plasma sheet electrons into the ionosphere, producing the diffuse Aurora. Previous work has demonstrated ECH waves dominate electron scattering at L shells >8, while whistler chorus dominates scattering at L shells L < 8. However, we find from Time History of Events and Macroscale (THEMIS) Interactions during Substorms observations of fast flows at L = 12 that oblique whistler chorus emissions play the dominant role in scattering electrons. Previous works have identified whistler‐mode waves within fast flows that are produced by an electron temperature anisotropy Te,⊥/Te,||> 1, consistent with electron betatron acceleration. Here, however, we find whistler chorus emissions throughout an interval of fast flows where Te,⊥/Te,||< 1. Parallel electron beams account for the enhanced parallel electron temperature and serve as the instability mechanism for the whistler chorus. The parallel electron beams and associated cigar‐shaped distributions are consistent with Fermi acceleration at dipolarizations in fast flows. We demonstrate that the scattering efficiency of the whistler chorus exceeds that of ECH waves, which THEMIS also detects during the fast flows. The obliquity of the whistler waves permits efficient scattering of lower‐energy electrons into the diffuse aurora. We conclude that Fermi acceleration of electrons provides one important free‐energy source for the wave‐particle interactions responsible for coupling plasma sheet electrons into the diffuse aurora during substorm conditions.

Electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves are electrostatic emissions with frequencies between the harmonics of the electron gyrofrequencies. Their frequency properties provide clues for understanding their generation and are keys to evaluating their scattering efficiency. Based on Magnetospheric Multiscale satellite observations, we explored the statistical frequency properties of first‐harmonic band ECH waves in the outer magnetosphere. The frequencies at the peak power of ECH waves are found to be day‐night and dawn‐dusk asymmetries, with higher values in the regions from dawn to post‐noon, and these asymmetries are more evident during weaker geomagnetic activity. Furthermore, the frequencies at the peak power of ECH waves decrease gradually with increasing |MLAT| and are positively correlated with their amplitudes at each magnetic local time or |MLAT|. Information on the frequency properties of ECH waves presented in this study can be crucial for future modeling of their contributions to magnetospheric electron dynamics.

In this paper, we perform a 1‐D particle‐in‐cell (PIC) simulation model consisting of three species, cold electrons, cold ions, and energetic ion ring, to investigate spectral structures of magnetosonic waves excited by ring distribution protons in the Earth's magnetosphere, and dynamics of charged particles during the excitation of magnetosonic waves. As the wave normal angle decreases, the spectral range of excited magnetosonic waves becomes broader with upper frequency limit extending beyond the lower hybrid resonant frequency, and the discrete spectra tends to merge into a continuous one. This dependence on wave normal angle is consistent with the linear theory. The effects of magnetosonic waves on the background cold plasma populations also vary with wave normal angle. For exactly perpendicular magnetosonic waves (parallel wave number k|| = 0), there is no energization in the parallel direction for both background cold protons and electrons due to the negligible fluctuating electric field component in the parallel direction. In contrast, the perpendicular energization of background plasmas is rather significant, where cold protons follow unmagnetized motion while cold electrons follow drift motion due to wave electric fields. For magnetosonic waves with a finite k||, there exists a nonnegligible parallel fluctuating electric field, leading to a significant and rapid energization in the parallel direction for cold electrons. These cold electrons can also be efficiently energized in the perpendicular direction due to the interaction with the magnetosonic wave fields in the perpendicular direction. However, cold protons can be only heated in the perpendicular direction, which is likely caused by the higher‐order resonances with magnetosonic waves. The potential impacts of magnetosonic waves on the energization of the background cold plasmas in the Earth's inner magnetosphere are also discussed in this paper.