Parallel Acceleration of Suprathermal Electrons Caused by Whistler‐Mode Hiss Waves
Abstract
Suprathermal electrons (~0.1–10 keV) in the inner magnetosphere are usually observed in a 90°‐peaked pitch angle distribution, formed due to the conservation of the first and second adiabatic invariants as they are transported from the plasma sheet. We report a peculiar field‐aligned suprathermal electron (FASE) distribution measured by Van Allen Probes, where parallel fluxes are 1 order of magnitude higher than perpendicular fluxes. Those FASEs are found to be closely correlated with large‐amplitude hiss waves and are observed around the Landau resonant energies. We demonstrate, using quasilinear diffusion simulations, that hiss waves can rapidly accelerate suprathermal electrons through Landau resonance and create the observed FASE population. The proposed mechanism potentially has broad implications for suprathermal electron dynamics as well as whistler mode waves in the Earth's magnetosphere and has been demonstrated in the Jovian magnetosphere.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 22, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1029/2019gl085562
Entities
People
- Daniel N. Baker
- David P Hartley
- Geoffrey D Reeves
- George G. Hospodarsky
- Harlan Spence
- Herbert O Funsten
- Jacob Bortnik
- Jinxing Li
- Qianli Ma
- Wen Li
- William S. Kurth
- Xin An
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Boston University
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Science Foundation
- United States Department of Energy
- University of Iowa
- University of New Hampshire