Multispacecraft observations of chorus emissions as a tool for the plasma density fluctuations' remote sensing
Abstract
Discrete ELF/VLF chorus emissions are the most intense electromagnetic plasma waves that are observed in the radiation belts and in the outer magnetosphere of the Earth. They are assumed to propagate approximately along the magnetic field lines and are generated in source regions in the vicinity of the magnetic equator and in minimum B pockets in the dayside outer zone of the magnetosphere.
The presence of plasma density irregularities along the raypath causes a loss of phase coherence of the chorus wave packets. These irregularities are often present around the plasmapause and in the radiation belts; they occur at scales ranging from a few meters up to several hundred kilometers and can be highly anisotropic.
Such irregularities result in fluctuations of the dielectric permittivity, whose statistical properties can be studied making use of intersatellite correlations of whistler waves' phases and amplitudes. We demonstrate how the whistler-mode wave properties can be used to infer statistical characteristics of the density fluctuations.
The analogy between weakly coupled oscillators under the action of uncorrelated random forces and wave propagation in a randomly fluctuating medium is used to determine the wave phase dependence on the duration of signal recording time. We study chorus whistler-mode waves observed by the Cluster WBD instrument and apply intersatellite correlation analysis to determine the statistical characteristics of the waveform phases and amplitudes.
We then infer the statistical characteristics of the plasma density fluctuations and evaluate the spatial distribution of the irregularities using the same chorus events observed by the four Cluster spacecraft.