Resonant Scattering of Near‐Equatorially Mirroring Electrons by Landau Resonance With H+ Band EMIC Waves
Abstract
By investigating the resonant energy and latitudinal resonance region of Landau resonance between H+ band electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves and radiation belt electrons and performing calculations of quasi‐linear diffusion coefficients, we find that Landau resonance with EMIC waves, characterized by a very broad range of resonant energies from below 1 eV to above 10 MeV and the strikingly small extent of the latitudinal resonance region well below 0.1°, can be a feasible candidate accounting for the pitch angle scattering of near‐equatorially mirroring electrons. Compared to the dominant pitch angle scattering caused by the cyclotron resonance for greater than ~2‐MeV electrons at equatorial pitch angles less than ~80° with the rates well above 10−4 s−1, Landau resonance with H+ band EMIC waves has the potential to drive more efficient pitch angle scattering of radiation belt electrons from ~10 MeV down to tens of kiloelectron volts at equatorial pitch angles greater than ~ 85°.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 23, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1029/2018gl079718
Entities
People
- Binbin Ni
- Jacob Bortnik
- Qi Wang
- Song Fu
- Wenxun Zhang
- Xin Tao
- Xing Cao
- Xudong Gu
- Yang Zhang
- Yasong Ge
- Yuequn Lou
- Zheng Xiang
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Wuhan University