Premium
Determining the Temporal and Spatial Coherence of Plasmaspheric Hiss Waves in the Magnetosphere
Author(s) -
Zhang Shuai,
Rae I. Jonathan,
Watt Clare E. J.,
Degeling Alexander W.,
Tian Anmin,
Shi Quanqi,
Shen XiaoChen,
Smith Andy W.,
Wang Mengmeng
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1029/2020ja028635
Subject(s) - hiss , plasmasphere , van allen radiation belt , physics , van allen probes , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , magnetosphere , geophysics , local time , computational physics , pitch angle , amplitude , earth's magnetic field , electron , plasma , magnetic field , optics , nuclear physics , statistics , mathematics , quantum mechanics
Plasmaspheric hiss is one of the most important plasma waves in the Earth's magnetosphere to contribute to radiation belt dynamics by pitch‐angle scattering energetic electrons via wave‐particle interactions. There is growing evidence that the temporal and spatial variability of wave‐particle interactions are important factors in the construction of diffusion‐based models of the radiation belts. Hiss amplitudes are thought to be coherent across large distances and on long timescales inside the plasmapause, which means that hiss can act on radiation belt electrons throughout their drift trajectories for many hours. In this study, we investigate both the spatial and temporal coherence of plasmaspheric hiss between the two Van Allen Probes from November 2012 to July 2019. We find ∼3,264 events where we can determine the correlation of wave amplitudes as a function of both spatial distance and time lag in order to study the spatial and temporal coherence of plasmaspheric hiss. The statistical results show that both the spatial and temporal correlation of plasmaspheric hiss decrease with increasing L ‐shell, and become incoherent at L > ∼4.5. Inside of L = ∼4.5, we find that hiss is coherent to within a spatial extent of up to ∼1,500 km and a time lag up to ∼10 min. We find that the spatial and temporal coherence of plasmaspheric hiss does not depend strongly on the geomagnetic index (AL*) or magnetic local time. We discuss the ramifications of our results with relevance to understanding the global characteristics of plasmaspheric hiss waves and their role in radiation belt dynamics.