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Fine structure of plasmaspheric hiss
Author(s) -
Summers Danny,
Omura Yoshiharu,
Nakamura Satoko,
Kletzing Craig A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2014ja020437
Subject(s) - hiss , waveform , broadband , physics , amplitude , phase (matter) , meteor (satellite) , meteorology , electron , optics , nuclear physics , voltage , quantum mechanics
Plasmaspheric hiss has been widely regarded as a broadband, structureless, incoherent emission. In this study, by examining burst‐mode vector waveform data from the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science instrument on the Van Allen Probes mission, we show that plasmaspheric hiss is a coherent emission with complex fine structure. Specifically, plasmaspheric hiss appears as discrete rising tone and falling tone elements. Our study comprises the analysis of two 1 h samples within which a total of eight 1 s samples were analyzed. By means of waveform analysis on two samples, we identify typical amplitudes, phase profiles, and sweep rates of the rising and falling tone elements. The exciting new observations reported here can be expected to fuel a reexamination of the properties of plasmaspheric hiss, including a further reanalysis of the generation mechanism for hiss.