Polarization distribution of transverse ULF waves according to Van Allen Probe A data: whether toroidal and poloidal waves exist separately in the magnetosphere?

Abstract

Ultralow-frequency (ULF) waves play an important role in energy transfer within Earth's magnetosphere due to intensive interaction with the surrounding plasma. Previous works have assumed that these waves are strictly divided by polarization into toroidal, when the magnetic field oscillates in the azimuthal direction, and poloidal, when it oscillates in the radial direction. The former are azimuthally large-scale and are excited by external sources, whereas the latter are small-scale and are generated by internal plasma instabilities. Observations show, however, that waves of mixed polarization often occur, and the nature of this mixing has not been explained. In this paper, we carry out a statistical study and show that the polarization of transverse waves has a normal distribution, and the maximum corresponds to oscillations of the toroidal and poloidal components with the same amplitude. At the same time, the spatial distributions of toroidal and poloidal waves are clearly different, but only lead to a small shift in the position of the distribution maximum. This result suggests that in order to compare the theory with ULF wave observations it is necessary to take into account the processes of polarization change, which can affect wave-particle interactions in the magnetosphere.

Keywords

• magnetosphere
• ulf waves
• alfvén waves
• polarization