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The Effects of Upper‐Hybrid Waves on Energy Dissipation in the Electron Diffusion Region
Author(s) -
Dokgo Kyunghwan,
Hwang KyoungJoo,
Burch James L.,
Yoon Peter H.,
Graham Daniel B.,
Li Wenya
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2020gl089778
Subject(s) - dissipation , physics , computational physics , plasma , lower hybrid oscillation , electron , diffusion , electric field , atomic physics , electromagnetic electron wave , quantum mechanics
Using a two‐dimensional particle‐in‐cell simulation, we investigate the effects and roles of upper‐hybrid waves (UHW) near the electron diffusion region (EDR). The energy dissipation via the wave‐particle interaction in our simulation agrees with J · E ′ measured by magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) spacecraft. It means that UHW contributes to the local energy dissipation. As a result of wave‐particle interactions, plasma parameters which determine the larger‐scale energy dissipation in the EDR are changed. The y ‐directional current decreases while the pressure tensor P y z increases/decreases when the agyrotropic beam density is low/high, where ( x , y , z ) ‐coordinates correspond the ( L , M , N ) ‐boundary coordinates. Because the reconnection electric field comes from − ∂ P y z / ∂ z , our result implies that UHW plays an additional role in affecting larger‐scale energy dissipation in the EDR by changing plasma parameters. We provide a simple diagram that shows how the UHW activities change the profiles of plasma parameters near the EDR comparing cases with and without UHW.