TY - JOUR
T1 - The First Observation of N+ Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron Waves
AU - Bashir, M. Fraz
AU - Ilie, Raluca
N1 - Funding Information:
M.F. Bashir is grateful to Lunjin Chen and Xiongdong Yu for insightful discussions. Research at UIUC was supported via AFOSR Young Investigator Research Program Award (AF FA9550‐18‐1‐0195), NSF ICER Award 1664078 and NASA 80NSSC17K0015 (Sub MI 3004631577) and NASA ECIP 101049. The authors acknowledge the Van Allen Probes mission for the use of EMFISIS, HOPE, and EFW data in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Observations from past space missions report on the significant abundance of N+, in addition to those of O+, outflowing from the terrestrial ionosphere and populating the near-Earth region. However, instruments on board current space missions lack the mass resolution to distinguish between the two, and often the role of N+ in regulating the magnetosphere dynamics, is lumped together with that of O+ ions. For instance, our understanding regarding the role of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves in controlling the loss and acceleration of radiation belt electrons and ring current ions has been based on the contribution of He+ and O+ ions only. We report the first observations by Van Allen Probes of linearly polarized N+ EMIC waves, which confirm the presence of N+ in the terrestrial magnetosphere, and open up new avenues to particle energization, loss, and transport mechanisms, based on the altered magnetospheric plasma composition.
AB - Observations from past space missions report on the significant abundance of N+, in addition to those of O+, outflowing from the terrestrial ionosphere and populating the near-Earth region. However, instruments on board current space missions lack the mass resolution to distinguish between the two, and often the role of N+ in regulating the magnetosphere dynamics, is lumped together with that of O+ ions. For instance, our understanding regarding the role of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves in controlling the loss and acceleration of radiation belt electrons and ring current ions has been based on the contribution of He+ and O+ ions only. We report the first observations by Van Allen Probes of linearly polarized N+ EMIC waves, which confirm the presence of N+ in the terrestrial magnetosphere, and open up new avenues to particle energization, loss, and transport mechanisms, based on the altered magnetospheric plasma composition.
KW - N EMIC wave
KW - Van Allen Probes
KW - electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves
KW - heavy ions
KW - inner magnetosphere
KW - wave-particle interaction
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U2 - 10.1029/2020JA028716
DO - 10.1029/2020JA028716
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85103263092
VL - 126
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
SN - 2169-9380
IS - 3
M1 - e2020JA028716
ER -