EMIC Waves in the Outer Magnetosphere: Observations of an Off-Equator Source Region.

Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves at large L shells were observed away from the magnetic equator by the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission nearly continuously for over four hours on 28 October 2015. During this event, the wave Poynting vector direction systematically changed from parallel to the magnetic field (toward the equator), to bidirectional, to antiparallel (away from the equator). These changes coincide with the shift in the location of the minimum in the magnetic field in the southern hemisphere from poleward to equatorward of MMS. The local plasma conditions measured with the EMIC waves also suggest that the outer magnetospheric region sampled during this event was generally unstable to EMIC wave growth. Together, these observations indicate that the bidirectionally propagating wave packets were not a result of reflection at high latitudes but that MMS passed through an off-equator EMIC wave source region associated with the local minimum in the magnetic field

Near-Earth initiation of a terrestrial substorm

Despite the characterization of the auroral substorm more than 40 years ago, controversy still surrounds the processes triggering substorm onset initiation. That stretching of the Earth's magnetotail following the addition of new nightside magnetic flux from dayside reconnection powers the substorm is well understood; the trigger for explosive energy release at substorm expansion phase onset is not. Using ground-based data sets with unprecedented combined spatial and temporal coverage, we report the discovery of new localized and contemporaneous magnetic wave and small azimuthal scale auroral signature of substorm onset. These local auroral arc undulations and magnetic field signatures rapidly evolve on second time scales for several minutes in advance of the release of the auroral surge. We also present evidence from a conjugate geosynchronous satellite of the concurrent magnetic onset in space as the onset of magnetic pulsations in the ionosphere, to within technique error. Throughout this time period, the more poleward arcs that correspond to the auroral oval which maps to the central plasma sheet remain undisturbed. There is good evidence that flows from the midtail crossing the plasma sheet can generate north-south auroral structures, yet no such auroral forms are seen in this event. Our observations present a severe challenge to the standard hypothesis that magnetic reconnection in stretched magnetotail fields triggers onset, indicating substorm expansion phase initiation occurs on field lines that are close to the Earth, as bounded by observations at geosynchronous orbit and in the conjugate ionosphere

Sounding of the plasmasphere by Mid‐continent MAgnetoseismic Chain (McMAC) magnetometers

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99015/1/jgra50274.pd

High-resolution in situ observations of electron precipitation-causing EMIC waves

Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves are thought to be important drivers of energetic electron losses from the outer radiation belt through precipitation into the atmosphere. While the theoretical possibility of pitch angle scattering-driven losses from these waves has been recognized for more than four decades, there have been limited experimental precipitation observations to support this concept. We have combined satellite-based observations of the characteristics of EMIC waves, with satellite and ground-based observations of the EMIC-induced electron precipitation. In a detailed case study, supplemented by an additional four examples, we are able to constrain for the first time the location, size, and energy range of EMIC-induced electron precipitation inferred from coincident precipitation data and relate them to the EMIC wave frequency, wave power, and ion band of the wave as measured in situ by the Van Allen Probes. These observations will better constrain modeling into the importance of EMIC wave-particle interactions

Сучасний стан і проблеми управління залізничним транспортом України

Проаналізовано стан і тенденції розвитку залізничного транспорту. Розглянуті основні завдання державного регулювання галузі.Проанализировано состояние и тенденции развития железнодорожного транспорта. Рассмотренны основные задания государственного регулирования отрасли.The condition and trends of railway transport has been anilized. The main tasks of state regulation of railway transport has been considereted

Van Allen probes, NOAA, GOES, and ground observations of an intense EMIC wave event extending over 12 h in magnetic local time

Although most studies of the effects of EMIC waves on Earth's outer radiation belt have focused on events in the afternoon sector in the outer plasmasphere or plume region, strong magnetospheric compressions provide an additional stimulus for EMIC wave generation across a large range of local times and L shells. We present here observations of the effects of a wave event on February 23, 2014 that extended over 8 hours in UT and over 12 hours in local time, stimulated by a gradual 4-hour rise and subsequent sharp increases in solar wind pressure. Large-amplitude linearly polarized hydrogen band EMIC waves (up to 25 nT p-p) appeared for over 4 hours at both Van Allen Probes, from late morning through local noon, when these spacecraft were outside the plasmapause, with densities ~5-20 cm-3. Waves were also observed by ground-based induction magnetometers in Antarctica (near dawn), Finland (near local noon), Russia (in the afternoon), and in Canada (from dusk to midnight). Ten passes of NOAA-POES and METOP satellites near the northern footpoint of the Van Allen Probes observed 30-80 keV subauroral proton precipitation, often over extended L shell ranges; other passes identified a narrow L-shell region of precipitation over Canada. Observations of relativistic electrons by the Van Allen Probes showed that the fluxes of more field-aligned and more energetic radiation belt electrons were reduced in response to both the emission over Canada and the more spatially extended emission associated with the compression, confirming the effectiveness of EMIC-induced loss processes for this event

Deformation-related volcanism in the Pacific Ocean linked to the Hawaiian-Emperor bend

Ocean islands, seamounts and volcanic ridges are thought to form above mantle plumes. Yet, this mechanism cannot explain many volcanic features on the Pacific Ocean floor and some might instead be caused by cracks in the oceanic crust linked to the reorganization of plate motions. A distinctive bend in the Hawaiian–Emperor volcanic chain has been linked to changes in the direction of motion of the Pacific Plate, movement of the Hawaiian plume, or a combination of both. However, these links are uncertain because there is no independent record that precisely dates tectonic events that affected the Pacific Plate. Here we analyse the geochemical characteristics of lava samples collected from the Musicians Ridges, lines of volcanic seamounts formed close to the Hawaiian–Emperor bend. We find that the geochemical signature of these lavas is unlike typical ocean island basalts and instead resembles mid-ocean ridge basalts. We infer that the seamounts are unrelated to mantle plume activity and instead formed in an extensional setting, due to deformation of the Pacific Plate. 40Ar/39Ar dating reveals that the Musicians Ridges formed during two time windows that bracket the time of formation of the Hawaiian–Emperor bend, 53–52 and 48–47 million years ago. We conclude that the Hawaiian–Emperor bend was formed by plate–mantle reorganization, potentially triggered by a series of subduction events at the Pacific Plate margins

First simultaneous measurements of waves generated at the bow shock in the solar wind, the magnetosphere and on the ground

On 5 September 2002 the Geotail satellite observed the cone angle of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) change to values below 30° during a 56 min interval between 18:14 and 19:10 UT. This triggered the generation of upstream waves at the bow shock, 13 <I>R<sub>E</sub></I> downstream of the position of Geotail. Upstream generated waves were subsequently observed by Geotail between 18:30 and 18:48 UT, during times the IMF cone angle dropped below values of 10°. At 18:24 UT all four Cluster satellites simultaneously observed a sudden increase in wave power in all three magnetic field components, independent of their position in the dayside magnetosphere. We show that the 10 min delay between the change in IMF direction as observed by Geotail and the increase in wave power observed by Cluster is consistent with the propagation of the IMF change from the Geotail position to the bow shock and the propagation of the generated waves through the bow shock, magnetosheath and magnetosphere towards the position of the Cluster satellites. We go on to show that the wave power recorded by the Cluster satellites in the component containing the poloidal and compressional pulsations was broadband and unstructured; the power in the component containing toroidal oscillations was structured and shows the existence of multi-harmonic Alfvénic continuum waves on field lines. Model predictions of these frequencies fit well with the observations. An increase in wave power associated with the change in IMF direction was also registered by ground based magnetometers which were magnetically conjunct with the Cluster satellites during the event. To the best of our knowledge we present the first simultaneous observations of waves created by backstreaming ions at the bow shock in the solar wind, the dayside magnetosphere and on the ground

Equatorial electron loss by double resonance with oblique and parallel intense chorus waves

International audiencePuzzling satellite observations of butterfly pitch angle distributions and rapid dropouts of 30–150 keV electrons are widespread in the Earth’s radiation belts. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain these observations, such as enhanced outward radial diffusion combined withmagnetopause shadowing or scattering by intense magnetosonic waves, but their effectiveness is mainly limited to storm times. Moreover, the scattering of 30–150 keV electrons via cyclotron resonance with intense parallel chorus waves should be limited to particles with equatorial pitch angle smaller than 70∘–75∘, leaving unaffected a large portion of the population. In this paper, we investigate the possible effects of oblique whistler mode waves, noting, in particular, that Landau resonance with very oblique waves can occur up to ∼89∘. We demonstrate that such very oblique chorus waves with realistic amplitudes can very efficiently nonlinearly transport nearly equatorially mirroring electrons toward smaller pitch angleswhere nonlinear scattering (phase bunching) via cyclotron resonance with quasi-parallel waves can take over and quickly send them to much lower pitch angles <40∘. The proposed double resonance mechanism could therefore explain the formation of butterfly pitch angle distributions as well as contribute to some fast dropouts of 30–150 keV electrons occurring during moderate geomagnetic disturbances at L = 4–6. Since 30–150 keV electrons represent a seed population for a further acceleration to relativistic energies by intense parallel chorus waves during storms or substorms, the proposed mechanism may have important consequences on the dynamics of 100 keV to MeV electron fluxes in the radiation belts