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Wave generation by ion horseshoe distributions on auroral field lines
Author(s) -
Bingham R.,
Kellett B. J.,
Cairns R. A.,
Dendy R. O.,
Shukla P. K.
Publication year - 1999
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 - 10.1029/1999gl900582
Subject(s) - horseshoe (symbol) , plasma sheet , ion , perpendicular , field (mathematics) , field line , physics , distribution function , geology , geophysics , plasma , satellite , computational physics , magnetosphere , geometry , astronomy , nuclear physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language , pure mathematics
Recent observation by Freja satellite of ions in the auroral zone at the boundary of the plasma sheet and tail lobe reveal the presence of a ring or horseshoe type distribution function. The horseshoe type distribution function measured by the satellites has a field aligned component which is moving in the case of the Freja data in the down‐going direction with a peak velocity of about 400 km/sec . We show that the horseshoe type distribution is unstable to predominantly perpendicular ion waves with frequencies in the lower‐hybrid range.