Sheet Electrons Research Articles

Toward the Unified Theory of SAID‐Linked Subauroral Arcs

AbstractWe present a unified approach to subauroral arcs within intense subauroral ion drifts (SAID), which explains the observed transition of a precursor Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arc into Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE). This approach is based on the short‐circuiting concept of fasttime SAID as an integral part of a magnetospheric voltage generator between the innermost boundaries of the freshly injected plasma sheet electrons and ring current ions. Here, enhanced plasma turbulence rapidly heats the bulk plasma and accelerates suprathermal non‐Maxwellian “tails.” Heat and suprathermal electron transport rapidly elevate the ionospheric electron temperature—the source of a bright SAR arc. Through a substorm, the density altitude profile within the evolving ionospheric SAID channel transforms into a “fresh” F‐region trough with the E‐region valley. The ionospheric feedback instability within the depleted‐density SAID channel generates small‐scale, field‐aligned currents with parallel electric fields sufficient to produce the suprathermal electron population, exciting the STEVE and Picket Fence emissions. This approach also explains the inner electromagnetic structure of intense SAID, which is consistent with fine optical structures in STEVE and Picket Fence.

Variation of Electron Lifetime Due To Scattering by Electrostatic Electron Cyclotron Harmonic Waves in the Inner Magnetosphere With Electron Distribution Parameters

AbstractThrough resonant wave‐particle interactions with electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves, low‐energy plasma sheet electrons can be scattered into the atmospheric loss cone and precipitate. This process can be investigated by calculating bounce‐averaged quasi‐linear diffusion coefficients. However, the numerical calculation of ECH wave‐induced scattering rates requires the specification of several parameters, including the properties of the hot plasma sheet electrons responsible for the wave excitation. The dependence of the diffusion coefficients on these parameters and the exact contribution of scattering by ECH waves to diffuse auroral precipitation is still poorly understood and has not been carefully quantified yet. In this study, we calculate bounce‐averaged quasi‐linear scattering rates and compare the resulting lifetimes to the strong diffusion limit. We vary the temperature, plasma density, and loss cone parameters of the hot component in the electron loss cone distribution over a large range based on previous studies and observations. By adopting a new model that derives the wave normal angle from the midpoint and the angular width of the growth rate profile, our findings suggest that the electron lifetime near the loss cone is not significantly affected by the hot electron temperature and loss cone parameters. However, there is an increase in electron lifetimes with increasing plasma density. For an electric field amplitude of 1 mV/m, the electron lifetime is below or equal to the lifetime calculated using the strong diffusion limit up to E = 0.25 keV when n = 1.5 cm−3, and up to E = 0.22 keV when n = 9 cm−3.

Langmuir and Upper Hybrid Waves in Earth's Magnetotail

AbstractWaves at the electron plasma frequency are found throughout the heliosphere. They provide indicators of unstable electron distributions, are routinely used to estimate the local electron number density, and can lead to radio wave emission at the plasma frequency and its harmonics. Although they have been studied extensively in various solar and heliospheric plasma regions, there is a lack of statistical studies of plasma frequency waves in Earth's magnetotail. Here, the occurrence and properties of plasma frequency waves, namely Langmuir and upper hybrid (UH) waves, are investigated in Earth's magnetotail using the four Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. In Earth's magnetotail plasma frequency waves are observed about 1% of the time. About 80% of the waves are identified as Langmuir waves, while about 20% are identified as UH waves. The waves are primarily found in the plasma sheet boundary layer. By comparing with the local electron distributions it is shown that the Langmuir waves are generated by the bump‐on‐tail instability, while UH waves are typically associated with broad electron beams or loss‐cone‐like distributions. The majority of the waves are found in close proximity to ion outflow regions associated with magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail. The waves are likely generated by plasma sheet electrons escaping along newly reconnected magnetic field lines or electron beams propagating toward the distant magnetotail.

Contribution of Kinetic Alfvén Waves to Energetic Electron Precipitation From the Plasma Sheet During a Substorm

AbstractEnergetic (≳50 keV) electron precipitation from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere during substorms can be important for magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling. Using conjugate observations between the THEMIS, ELFIN, and DMSP spacecraft during a substorm, we have analyzed the energetic electron precipitation, the magnetospheric injection, and the associated plasma waves to examine the role of waves in pitch‐angle scattering plasma sheet electrons into the loss cone. During the substorm expansion phase, ELFIN‐A observed 50–300 keV electron precipitation from the plasma sheet that was likely driven by wave‐particle interactions. The identification of the low‐altitude extent of the plasma sheet from ELFIN is aided by DMSP global auroral images. Combining quasi‐linear theory, numerical test particle simulations, and equatorial THEMIS measurements of particles and fields, we have evaluated the relative importance of kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs) and whistler‐mode waves in driving the observed precipitation. We find that the KAW‐driven bounce‐averaged pitch‐angle diffusion coefficients near the edge of the loss cone are ∼10−6–10−5 s−1 for these energetic electrons. The due to parallel whistler‐mode waves, observed at THEMIS ∼10‐min after the ELFIN observations, are ∼10−8–10−6 s−1. Thus, at least in this case, the observed KAWs dominate over the observed whistler‐mode waves in the scattering and precipitation of energetic plasma sheet electrons during the substorm injection.

Characteristics of Electron Pitch-angle Distribution in the Flapping Magnetotail

The configuration, local motions, and related physics processes of the terrestrial magnetotail have been well studied, playing a key role in magnetotail dynamics. But characteristics of electron pitch-angle distribution (PAD), and the formation mechanisms, at different regions in the flapping magnetotail were not pointed out. Here, we study a current sheet crossing event detected by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission inside a magnetotail, and investigate the electron PAD of the event in detail. When the spacecraft are out of the current sheet, low-energy and high-energy electrons present field-aligned PAD and cigar-type PAD, respectively. This difference shows different motions of electrons. We proposed two possible explanation mechanisms: crossing a newly dipolarized magnetotail, or crossing the exhaust region of the reconnection region, and we discussed them in the paper adequately. Based on the dipolarized mechanism, for the first time, we point out that bouncing electrons could be the indicator of a newly dipolarized magnetotail. In addition, four other current sheet crossing cases with similar signatures are observed. Our study improves the understanding of current sheet dynamics and magnetotail configuration physics.

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

AbstractElectron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves, potential drivers for diffuse aurora precipitation, have been extensively investigated for decades. The generation mechanism of ECH waves, however, remains an open question. Theoretical work in 1970s has demonstrated that ECH waves can be excited by loss cone distributions of hot plasma sheet electrons. Recent THEMIS spacecraft observations, however, indicate that the waves can also be excited by low energy electron beams. Utilizing interferometry techniques to analyze the phase difference between electric potentials measured by individual probes on Electric Field Instrument antenna pairs on THEMIS spacecraft, we compute the wavenumber of both beam‐driven ECH waves and loss‐cone‐driven ECH waves. These wavenumber measurements as well as other wave properties obtained from spacecraft measurements prove to be consistent with expectation from linear instability analysis. This provides us with independent verification of the generation mechanism and linear dispersion relation of beam‐driven and loss‐cone‐driven ECH waves. Our statistical results demonstrate that the median value of the wave vectors of beam‐driven ECH waves, characterized by wave normal angles () less than 80°, is 0.011 m−1; and that of loss‐cone‐driven ECH waves, characterized by wave normal angles larger than 85°, is 0.00765 m−1. Direct wavenumber measurements of ECH waves allow us to better understand the interaction between ECH waves and electrons in Earth's magnetosphere.

Realistic Electron Diffusion Rates and Lifetimes Due to Scattering by Electron Holes

AbstractPlasma sheet electron precipitation into the diffuse aurora is critical for magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling. Recent studies have shown that electron phase space holes can pitch‐angle scatter electrons and may produce plasma sheet electron precipitation. These studies have assumed identical electron hole parameters to estimate electron scattering rates (Vasko et al., 2018, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5039687). In this study, we have re‐evaluated the efficiency of this scattering by incorporating realistic electron hole properties from direct spacecraft observations into computing electron diffusion rates and lifetimes. The most important electron hole properties in this evaluation are their distributions in velocity and spatial scale and electric field root‐mean‐square intensity (). Using direct measurements of electron holes during a plasma injection event observed by the Van Allen Probe at , we find that when 4 mV/m electron lifetimes can drop below 1 h and are mostly within strong diffusion limits at energies below 10 keV. During an injection observed by the THEMIS spacecraft at , electron holes with even typical intensities (1 mV/m) can deplete low‐energy (a few keV) plasma sheet electrons within tens of minutes following injections and convection from the tail. Our results confirm that electron holes are a significant contributor to plasma sheet electron precipitation during injections.

Periodic Rising and Falling Tone ECH Waves From Van Allen Probes Observations

AbstractElectron 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.

Potential Evidence of Low‐Energy Electron Scattering and Ionospheric Precipitation by Time Domain Structures

AbstractPlasma sheet electron precipitation is critical in magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling and has long been attributed to electron scattering by whistler‐mode and electron cyclotron harmonic waves. Recent observations have revealed that time domain structures (TDSs) that appear as broadband electrostatic fluctuations may also scatter plasma sheet electrons. However, there has been no observational evidence of TDS scattering electrons into the ionosphere. This study presents potential evidence from conjugate observations between the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission and the low‐altitude Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e‐POP) spacecraft. During the five events presented, THEMIS observed intense electron injections accompanied by TDSs, while e‐POP captured precipitation of plasma sheet electrons with energies ∼100–325 eV over a broad pitch angle range. The observed TDSs can efficiently scatter these electrons exceeding the strong diffusion limit. Our results suggest that TDSs may contribute to plasma sheet electron scattering around times of injections.

Dynamics of Auroral Precipitation Boundaries Associated With STEVE and SAID

AbstractUsing Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite observations and ground‐based observations by the THEMIS all‐sky imagers (ASIs) and SuperDARN radars, we determine how the equatorward boundary locations of ring current ions and plasma sheet electrons at pre‐midnight relate to occurrence of strong thermal emission velocity enhancement (STEVE) and intense subauroral ion drifts (SAID) during substorms. We found that the STEVE events are associated with a sharper gradient of electron precipitating flux, lower precipitating ion flux, and a narrower (<1°) latitudinal gap between the equatorward boundaries of trapped ring current ions and precipitating plasma sheet electrons and narrower region‐2 field‐aligned currents (FACs) than for the non‐STEVE events. The narrow gap of the particle boundaries contains intense SAID, higher upflow velocity, lower trough density, and slightly higher electron temperature than those for the non‐STEVE events. The non‐STEVE substorms have much wider gaps between the trapped ions and precipitating electrons, and subauroral polarization streams (SAPS) do not show intense SAID. These results indicate that subauroral flows and downward FACs for the STEVE events can only flow within the latitudinally narrow subauroral low‐conductance region between the ion and electron boundaries, resulting in intense SAID and heating. During the non‐STEVE events, the SAPS flows can flow in the latitudinally wide region without forming intense SAID.

The Formation of Electron Heat Flux in the Region of Diffuse Aurora

AbstractWhistler and electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonics waves are responsible for scattering and precipitating the energetic plasma sheet electrons that drive the diffuse aurora. These primary electrons with energies in the kiloelectron volt range, simultaneously precipitating in magnetically conjugate regions, produce the secondary electron population and can be reflected by the atmosphere back through the magnetosphere and precipitate into the conjugate region with additional follow‐up atmospheric backscatter. Primary, degraded, and secondary electrons can be trapped back into the magnetosphere as they travel back and forth between the two magnetically conjugate ionospheres and continuously delivering their energy to the cold plasma sheet electrons and form the electron thermal fluxes that deposit this energy at the upper ionospheric altitudes. We consider the formation of these heat fluxes focusing on the magnetosphere‐ionosphere energy interplay of the entire superthermal electron spectra from 1 eV up to 10 keV and discuss the efficiency of the different spectral energy intervals that contribute to the electron plasma heating at the magnetospheric altitudes. Our parametric studies at L = 6.8, with lower and upper band chorus whistler wave amplitudes of 10 pT and electron cyclotron harmonic wave amplitudes of 1 mVm−1, indicate the dominant role of the whistler mode in the formation of the electron heat flux coming from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere.

How Magnetically Conjugate Atmospheres and the Magnetosphere Participate in the Formation of Low‐Energy Electron Precipitation in the Region of Diffuse Aurora

AbstractThe electron precipitation in the region of the diffuse aurora should be considered as a two‐step process (Khazanov et al., 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL072063). The first one is the interaction of plasma sheet electrons with electrostatic electron cyclotron and/or whistler waves, moving those electrons into the loss cone to precipitate in both magnetically conjugate atmospheres. The second step is the interaction of these electrons with the ionosphere and atmosphere via their elastic and nonelastic collisions and reflection (backscatter) of degraded electrons back to magnetosphere and conjugate ionospheres. This paper presents the results of a newly developed scenario of nonsteady‐state electron precipitation dynamics that accounts for magnetosphere‐ionosphere‐atmosphere energy interplay over the entire energy range of the plasma sheet electron population and their affiliated secondary electrons. It also studies how both magnetically conjugate auroral regions work together with the magnetosphere in the formation of electron precipitation in the region of the diffuse aurora with the energy range coverage from 1 eV up to 10 keV.

Global Survey of Plasma Sheet Electron Precipitation due to Whistler Mode Chorus Waves in Earth's Magnetosphere

AbstractWhistler mode chorus waves can scatter plasma sheet electrons into the loss cone and produce the Earth's diffuse aurora. Van Allen Probes observed plasma sheet electron injections and intense chorus waves on 24 November 2012. We use quasilinear theory to calculate the precipitating electron fluxes, demonstrating that the chorus waves could lead to high differential energy fluxes of precipitating electrons with characteristic energies of 10–30 keV. Using this method, we calculate the precipitating electron flux from 2012 to 2019 when the Van Allen Probes were near the magnetic equator and perform global surveys of electron precipitation under different geomagnetic conditions. The most significant electron precipitation due to chorus is found from the nightside to dawn sectors over 4 < L < 6.5. The average total precipitating energy flux is enhanced during disturbed conditions, with time‐averaged values reaching ~3–10 erg/cm2/s when AE ≥ 500 nT.

On Whistler Mode Wave Relation to Electron Field‐Aligned Plateau Populations

AbstractWhistler mode waves are among the most intense electromagnetic emissions and play an important role in the energy redistribution between electron populations in the Earth inner magnetosphere through wave‐particle resonant interactions. Usually generated by transversely anisotropic plasma sheet electron populations ( 10–30 keV) through cyclotron resonance, whistler mode waves can effectively accelerate a small fraction of the seed population of energetic electrons ( 100 keV) up to relativistic energies. However, these waves can be efficiently damped through simultaneous interactions with much more numerous suprathermal electrons ( 0.1–1 keV) via Landau resonance. Recent observations indeed show that electron distributions accompanied by intense whistler mode emissions often contain a plateau‐like electron population at energies close to the energy of Landau resonance with the waves. However, simultaneous observations of these waves and of the related plateau population does not prove a causal relationship. Here, we test the hypothesis that such a plateau population may have been formed by whistler mode waves generated earlier, or by other types of waves. Combining analytical estimates and spacecraft observations, we show that this plateau population is often unlikely to be formed by whistler mode waves alone. We suggest three alternative scenarios that can lead to the formation of plateau populations and test these scenarios based on spacecraft observations. We show that a plateau population can be formed by ultralow frequency electric fields (carried by kinetic Alfven waves or time domain structures) often accompanying injections of plasma sheet electrons—the energy source for whistler mode waves. We also discuss the possible role of ionospheric secondary electrons.

Source of the Bursty Bulk Flow Diffuse Aurora: Electrostatic Cyclotron Harmonic and Whistler Waves in the Coupling of Bursty Bulk Flows to Auroral Precipitation

AbstractElectron 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.

Global Occurrences of Electrostatic Electron Cyclotron Harmonic Waves Associated With Radiation Belt Electron Distributions

AbstractElectrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves can yield diffuse aurora primarily at higher L‐shells by driving efficient precipitation loss of plasma sheet electrons. Here using the Van Allen Probes high resolution data, we examine in detail the global occurrences of ECH waves during the period from 1 October 2012 to 30 June 2017 and find that there are totally 419 events of enhanced ECH waves. The statistical results demonstrate that ECH waves can be present over a broad region of L = 4–6 and 00–24 MLT, with a higher occurrence in the region of L = 5–6 and 06–19 MLT. The electron phase space density exhibits a distinct ring distribution (∂f/∂v⊥ > 0) with the peak energy around a few kiloelectron volts. Both ECH wave events and the electron ring distributions are closely related and tend to be more distinct with increasing geomagnetic activity.

Triggered Plasmaspheric Hiss: Rising Tone Structures

AbstractIn this study, a rare hiss event observed by Van Allen Probe is reported and the possible generation is investigated based on wave and plasma measurements. The results suggest that the normal hiss (from 0.05fce to 0.5fce) with dominantly equatorward Poynting fluxes is locally generated by plasma sheet electrons via cyclotron instability. The low‐frequency band (from 30 Hz to 0.05fce) with a mixture of equatorward and poleward Poynting fluxes is probably due to multiple reflections inside the plasmasphere. Such difference in the two bands is confirmed by the calculation of minimum energy of resonant electrons and local growth rate. Moreover, the analysis on the fine structures of normal hiss waves shows that besides the expected incoherent structure (below 1 kHz), several rising tone elements are measured above 1 kHz. The rising tone structures are probably triggered by the incoherent hiss part below 1 kHz, which is rarely reported before.

Shift of the collective mode of polarized graphene on a substrate using spin-sensitive response theory

The growing precision of optical and scattering experiments necessitates a better understanding of the influence of damping onto the collective mode of sheet electrons. As spin-polarized systems are of particular interest for spintronic applications, we here report spin-sensitive linear response functions of graphene, which give access to chargeand spin-density related excitations. We further calculate the reflectivity of graphene on an SiO2 surface, a setup used in s-wave scanning near-field microscopy. Increasing the partial spin-polarization of the graphene charge carriers leads to a significant broadening and shift of the plasmon mode, due to single-particle interband transitions of the minority spin carriers. We also predict an antiresonance in the longitudinal magnetic response function, similar to that of semiconductor heterostructures.

Generation of Gigawatt Circularly Polarized Attosecond-Pulse Pairs.

A novel scheme for generating a pair of gigawatt attosecond pulses by coherent Thomson scattering from relativistic electron sheets is proposed. With a circularly polarized relativistic laser pulse, the scattered x-ray signal can have a saddlelike temporal profile, where the lower electromagnetic frequencies are found mostly in the center region of this saddlelike profile. By filtering out the latter, we can obtain two few-attosecond pulses separated by a subfemtosecond interval, which is tunable by controlling the energy of the sheet electrons. Such a pulse pair can be useful for an attosecond pump probe at an unprecedented time resolution and for ultrafast chiral studies in molecules and materials.

Van Allen Probes Measurements of Energetic Particle Deep Penetration Into the Low L Region (L < 4) During the Storm on 8 April 2016

AbstractUsing measurements from the Van Allen Probes, a penetration event of tens to hundreds of keV electrons and tens of keV protons into the low L shells (L < 4) is studied. Timing and magnetic local time (MLT) differences of energetic particle deep penetration are unveiled and underlying physical processes are examined. During this event, both proton and electron penetrations are MLT asymmetric. The observed MLT difference of proton penetration is consistent with convection of plasma sheet protons, suggesting enhanced convection during geomagnetic active times to be the cause of energetic proton deep penetration during this event. The observed MLT difference of tens to hundreds of keV electron penetration is completely different from tens of keV protons and cannot be well explained by inward radial diffusion, convection of plasma sheet electrons, or transport of trapped electrons by enhanced convection electric field represented by the Volland‐Stern model or a uniform dawn‐dusk electric field model based on the electric field measurements. It suggests that the underlying physical mechanism responsible for energetic electron deep penetration, which is very important for fully understanding energetic electron dynamics in the low L shells, should be MLT localized.