Electrostatic Steepening of Whistler Waves

Ivan Y. Vasko; Oleksiy V. Agapitov; Forrest S. Mozer; John W. Bonnell; Anto V. Artemyev; Vladimir V. Krasnoselskikh; Yuguang Tong

Electrostatic Steepening of Whistler Waves

Ivan Y. Vasko ¹ Oleksiy V. Agapitov ¹ Forrest S. Mozer ¹ John W. Bonnell ¹ Anto V. Artemyev Vladimir V. Krasnoselskikh ² Yuguang Tong ¹

1 SSL - Space Sciences Laboratory [Berkeley]

2 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace

Abstract : We present surprising observations by the NASA Van Allen Probes spacecraft of whistler waves with substantial electric field power at harmonics of the whistler wave fundamental frequency. The wave power at harmonics is due to nonlinearly steepened whistler electrostatic field that becomes possible in the two-temperature electron plasma due to whistler wave coupling to the electron-acoustic mode. The simulation and analytical estimates show that the steepening takes a few tens of milliseconds. The hydrodynamic energy cascade to higher frequencies facilitates efficient energy transfer from cyclotron resonant electrons, driving the whistler waves, to lower energy electrons.

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Physics [physics] / Physics [physics] / Space Physics [physics.space-ph]

Complete list of metadatas

https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01897794
Contributor : Nathalie Pothier <>
Submitted on : Wednesday, October 17, 2018 - 3:57:00 PM
Last modification on : Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - 12:19:23 PM

Electrostatic Steepening of Whistler Waves

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Electrostatic Steepening of Whistler Waves

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