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Statistical Properties of Hiss in Plasmaspheric Plumes and Associated Scattering Losses of Radiation Belt Electrons
Author(s) -
Zhang Wenxun,
Ni Binbin,
Huang He,
Summers Danny,
Fu Song,
Xiang Zheng,
Gu Xudong,
Cao Xing,
Lou Yuequn,
Hua Man
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1029/2018gl081863
Subject(s) - hiss , plasmasphere , van allen radiation belt , van allen probes , electron , physics , plume , scattering , radiation , electron precipitation , atomic physics , geophysics , computational physics , magnetosphere , meteorology , nuclear physics , plasma , optics
Whistler mode hiss acts as an important loss mechanism contributing to the radiation belt electron dynamics inside the plasmasphere and plasmaspheric plumes. Based on Van Allen Probes observations from September 2012 to December 2015, we conduct a detailed analysis of hiss properties in plasmaspheric plumes and illustrate that corresponding to the highest occurrence probability of plumes at L = 5.0–6.0 and MLT = 18–21, hiss emissions occur concurrently with a rate of >~80%. Plume hiss can efficiently scatter ~10‐ to 100‐keV electrons at rates up to ~10 −4 s −1 near the loss cone, and the resultant electron loss timescales vary largely with energy, that is, from less than an hour for tens of kiloelectron volt electrons to several days for hundreds of kiloelectron volt electrons and to >100 days for >5‐MeV electrons. These newly obtained statistical properties of plume hiss and associated electron scattering effects are useful to future modeling efforts of radiation belt electron dynamics.