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High‐altitude M / Q =2 ion cyclotron whistlers in the inner magnetosphere observed by the Akebono satellite
Author(s) -
Matsuda S.,
Kasahara Y.,
Goto Y.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl060459
Subject(s) - whistler , magnetosphere , cyclotron , physics , ionosphere , ion , atomic physics , solar wind , geophysics , electron , plasma , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
An ion cyclotron whistler is a left‐handed polarized electromagnetic ion cyclotron mode wave converted from a lightning electron whistler. Some ion cyclotron whistlers have been identified as deuteron whistlers. This paper reports M / Q = 2 ion cyclotron whistlers observed by the Akebono satellite in the altitude region around 3200–10000 km ( L = 1.5–3.4), which is a considerably higher altitude than those previously reported. This evidence indicates that M / Q = 2 ions are present not only in the low‐altitude region but also in the inner magnetosphere around L = 3.4. We estimated the ion concentration from the crossover frequency of the M / Q = 2 ion cyclotron whistler wave observed in the altitude region around 4200 km ( L = 1.7) and concluded that the concentration of M / Q = 2 ions was plausibly up to 12.6% during this event. Our observation results give important clues to study unknown minor ion profiles such as circulation mechanism of deuterons or injection mechanism of alpha particles in the solar wind.