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Statistical Distributions of Dayside ECH Waves Observed by MMS
Author(s) -
Lou Yuequn,
Gu Xudong,
Summers Danny,
Ni Binbin,
Liu Kaijun,
Fu Song,
Xiang Zheng,
Zou Zhengyang,
Cao Xing,
Zhang Wenxun,
Huang He,
He Ying
Publication year - 2018
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 - 10.1029/2018gl080125
Subject(s) - magnetosphere , physics , ionosphere , daytime , amplitude , geophysics , local time , earth's magnetic field , plasmasphere , atmospheric sciences , magnetic field , optics , statistics , mathematics , quantum mechanics
Strong electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves on the dayside magnetosphere have been reported based on observations of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft. In this study, we analyze high‐quality wave data from the four MMS satellites between 1 September 2015 and 30 August 2018 to investigate the statistical properties of dayside ECH emissions. The results show that dayside ECH waves are preferentially observed on the prenoon side in the outer magnetosphere ( L = 8–12), with average wave amplitude E w > 0.1 mV/m. In addition, besides the typical near‐equatorial (|MLAT| ≤ 15°) region, dayside ECH waves exhibit moderate occurrence rate and wave amplitude in higher latitudinal regions (i.e., 15 < |MLAT| ≤ 40°), possibly due to the off‐equatorial geomagnetic field minimum. Our reported double peaks of dayside ECH wave occurrence zone and considerable occurrence rates of prenoonside ECH waves suggest that dayside ECH waves can be a potentially important contributor to the formation of dayside diffuse aurora.