Collisional broadening of nonlinear resonant wave–particle interactions

A general procedure for understanding plasma behaviour when resonant wave–particle interactions are the sole destabilizing and transport mechanism or only heating and/or current drive source is highlighted without recourse to involved numerical or analytical treatments. These phenomena are characterized by transport that appears to be collisionless even though collisions play a central role in narrow collisional boundary layers. The order of magnitude estimates, which include nonlinear effects, are shown to provide expressions in agreement with the principal results of recent toroidal Alfvén eigenmode (TAE), toroidal magnetic field ripple, and heating and current drive treatments. More importantly, the retention of nonlinearities leads to new estimates of the alpha particle energy diffusivity at saturation for TAE modes, and the ripple threshold at which superbanana plateau evaluations of alpha particle transport are modified by nonlinear radial drift effects. In addition, the estimates indicate when quasilinear descriptions for heating and current drive will begin to fail. The phenomenological procedure demonstrates that in magnetic fusion relevant plasmas, narrow collisional boundary layers must be retained for resonant wave–particle interactions as they enhance the role of collisions, and make stochastic particle motion unlikely to be more important than other nonlinear processes.

Wave–particle interaction effects in the Van Allen belts

Discovering such structures as the third radiation belt (or “storage ring”) has been a major observational achievement of the NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes program (renamed the “Van Allen Probes” mission in November 2012). A goal of that program was to understand more thoroughly how high-energy electrons are accelerated deep inside the radiation belts—and ultimately lost—due to various wave–particle interactions. Van Allen Probes studies have demonstrated that electrons ranging up to 10 megaelectron volts (MeV) or more can be produced over broad regions of the outer Van Allen zone on timescales as short as a few minutes. The key to such rapid acceleration is the interaction of “seed” populations of ~ 10–200 keV electrons (and subsequently higher energies) with electromagnetic waves in the lower band (whistler-mode) chorus frequency range. Van Allen Probes data show that “source” electrons (in a typical energy range of one to a few tens of keV energy) produced by magnetospheric substorms play a crucial role in feeding free energy into the chorus waves in the outer zone. These chorus waves then, in turn, rapidly heat and accelerate the tens to hundreds of keV seed electrons injected by substorms to much higher energies. Hence, we often see that geomagnetic activity driven by strong solar storms (coronal mass ejections, or CMEs) commonly leads to ultra-relativistic electron production through the intermediary step of waves produced during intense magnetospheric substorms. More generally, wave–particle interactions are of fundamental importance over a broad range of energies and in virtually all regions of the magnetosphere. We provide a summary of many of the wave modes and particle interactions that have been studied in recent times.

The nature of the variability of wave particle interactions in the inner magnetosphere and consequences for diffusion models

<p>It is important to understand the variability of plasma processes across many different timescales in order to successfully model plasma in the inner magnetosphere. In this presentation, we focus on the interplay between the variability cold plasmaspheric plasma, whistler-mode wave activity, and the efficacy of wave-particle interactions in the inner magnetosphere. We use in-situ observations to quantify the amount and timescales of variability in pitch-angle diffusion due to plasmaspheric hiss in Earth’s inner magnetosphere, and suggest reasons for the variability. We then use a stochastic parameterization scheme to investigate the consequences of that variability in a numerical diffusion model. The results from the stochastic parameterization are contrasted with the standard approach of constructing averaged diffusion coefficients. We demonstrate that even when the average diffusion rates are the same, different timescales of variability in the wave-particle interactions lead to different end results in numerical diffusion models. We discuss the implications of our results for the modelling of wave-particle interactions in magnetospheres, and suggest quantifications that are vital for accurate modelling.</p>

Energetic electron precipitation via oblique whistler mode chorus emissions in the outer radiation belt

<p>Whistler mode chorus emissions in the Earth’s magnetosphere cause energetic electron precipitation and the associated pulsating aurora. First-order cyclotron resonance in parallel whistler mode wave-particle interactions is the main mechanism of the precipitation. Not only cyclotron resonance but also Landau resonance and higher-order cyclotron resonances occur in the oblique whistler mode wave-particle interactions. Especially, electrons can be accelerated and scattered to lower equatorial pitch angles rapidly via Landau resonance. We apply test particle simulation and the Green’s function method to check the energetic electron precipitation caused by oblique chorus emissions. We simulate the wave-particle interactions around L=4.5 for electron ranges from 10 keV to a few MeV. We further compare the precipitation fluxes between parallel and oblique chorus emissions. Our simulation result reveals that oblique chorus emissions lead to more electron precipitation than parallel chorus emissions. At kinetic energy E < 100 keV, the electron precipitation ratio (oblique case/parallel case) is about 1.3. At 100 keV < E < 0.5 MeV, the ratio is greater than 2. At E > 0.5 MeV, the ratio is greater than 2 orders. Multiple resonances effect in the oblique whistler mode wave-particle interactions is the reason for the greater precipitation.</p>