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ULF wave absorption at Mercury
Author(s) -
Kim EunHwa,
Johnson Jay R.,
Lee KyungDong
Publication year - 2011
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 - 10.1029/2011gl048621
Subject(s) - mercury (programming language) , absorption (acoustics) , geophysics , environmental science , astrobiology , remote sensing , geology , physics , meteorology , optics , computer science , programming language
The field line resonance at Mercury is expected to occur when the ion‐ion hybrid (IIH) and/or Alfvén resonance conditions are satisfied. However, the relative efficiency of wave energy absorption at these resonances has not been studied in the context of Mercury's magnetosphere. To understand the efficiency of wave absorption, we evaluate absorption coefficients at the IIH and Alfvén resonances for variable concentrations of sodium and azimuthal and field‐aligned wave numbers in 1D multi‐ion plasmas. The results show that wave absorption is much more efficient at the IIH resonance than at the Alfvén resonance at Mercury. Our results suggest that the mode conversion efficiency is sensitive to the azimuthal and field aligned wave numbers as well as heavy ion concentration ratio. Therefore, the radial profile of field‐line resonances at Mercury can exhibit complex, discontinuous structure.