Lower hybrid resonances stimulated by the four CLUSTER relaxation sounders deep inside the plasmasphere: observations and inferred plasma characteristics

S Kougblénou (1) , G Lointier (1) , Pierrette Décréau (1) , Jean-Gabriel Trotignon (1) , Jean-Louis Rauch (1) , Xavier Vallières (1) , Patrick Canu (2) , A Masson (3) , J Pickett (4)

1 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
2 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
3 RSSD - Research and Scientific Support Department, ESTEC
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Ames, Iowa]

The frequency range of the WHISPER relaxation sounder instrument on board CLUSTER, 4–80 kHz, has been chosen so as to encompass the electron gyro-frequency, F ce , and the electron plasma frequency, F p , in most regions to be explored. Measurement of those frequencies, which are triggered as resonances by the sounder, provides a direct estimation of in situ fundamental plasma characteristics: electron density and magnetic field intensity. In the late mission phase, CLUSTER penetrated regions deep inside the plas-masphere where F ce and F p are much higher than the upper frequency of the sounder's range. However, they are of the right order of magnitude as to place the lower hybrid frequency , F lh , in the 4–15 kHz band. This characteristic frequency , placed at a resonance of the medium, is triggered by the sounder's transmitter and shows up as an isolated peak in the received spectrum, not present in spectra of naturally occuring VLF waves. This paper illustrates, from analysis of case events, how measured F lh values give access to a plasma diagnostic novel of its kind. CLUSTER, travelling along its orbit, encounters favourable conditions where F ce is increasing and F p decreasing, such that F ce /F p increases from values below unity to values above unity. Measured F lh values thus give access, in turn, to the effective mass, M eff , indicative of plasma ion composition, and to the core plasma-sphere electron density value, a parameter difficult to measure. The analysed case events indicate that the estimated quantities (M eff in the 1.0–1.4 range, N e in the 5 × 10 2 – 10 4 cm −3 range) are varying with external factors (altitude, L value, geomagnetic activity) in a plausible way. Although covering only a restricted region (mid-latitude, low altitude inner plasmasphere), these measurements are available, since Correspondence to: S. Kougblénou ([e-mail]) late 2009, for all CLUSTER perigee passes not affected by eclipses (on average, roughly a third of a total of ∼200 passes per year) and offer multipoint observations previously unavailable in this region.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

S Kougblénou, G Lointier, Pierrette Décréau, Jean-Gabriel Trotignon, Jean-Louis Rauch, et al.. Lower hybrid resonances stimulated by the four CLUSTER relaxation sounders deep inside the plasmasphere: observations and inferred plasma characteristics. Annales Geophysicae, 2011, 29, pp.2003-2018. ⟨10.5194/angeo-29-2003-2011⟩. ⟨insu-01180096⟩