Identification

Title

Mirror instabilities in the inner magnetosphere and their potential for localized ULF wave generation

Abstract

Results from the NASA Van Allen Probes mission indicate extensive observations of mirror/drift-mirror (M/D-M hereafter) unstable plasma regions in the night-side inner magnetosphere. Said plasmas lie on the threshold between the kinetic and frozen-in plasma regimes and have favorable conditions for the formation of M/D-M modes and subsequent ultralow frequency (ULF) wave signatures in the surrounding plasma. We present the results of a climatological analysis of plasma-gamma (anisotropy measure) and total plasma-beta (ratio of particle to magnetic field pressure) in regard to the satisfaction of instability conditions on said M/D-M modes under bi-Maxwellian distribution assumption, and ascertain the most likely region for such plasmas to occur. Our results indicate a strong preference for the premidnight sector of the night-side magnetosphere, with events ranging in time scales from half a minute (roughly 200 km in scale size) to several hours (multiple Earth radii). The statistical distribution of these plasma regions explicitly identifies the source region of "storm time Pc5 ULF waves" and suggests an alternative mechanism for their generation in the night-side inner magnetosphere.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7ng4v15

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2021-02-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

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Conformity

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name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact