Annales Geophysicae (May 2021)

Attenuation of plasmaspheric hiss associated with the enhanced magnetospheric electric field

  • H. Li,
  • H. Li,
  • W. Li,
  • Q. Ma,
  • Q. Ma,
  • Y. Nishimura,
  • Z. Yuan,
  • A. J. Boyd,
  • A. J. Boyd,
  • X. Shen,
  • R. Tang,
  • X. Deng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-461-2021
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 39
pp. 461 – 470

Abstract

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We report an attenuation of hiss wave intensity in the duskside of the outer plasmasphere in response to enhanced convection and a substorm based on Van Allen Probe observations. Using test particle codes, we simulate the dynamics of energetic electron fluxes based on a realistic magnetospheric electric field model driven by solar wind and subauroral polarization stream. We suggest that the enhanced magnetospheric electric field causes the outward and sunward motion of energetic electrons, corresponding to the decrease of energetic electron fluxes on the duskside, leading to the subsequent attenuation of hiss wave intensity. The results indicate that the enhanced electric field can significantly change the energetic electron distributions, which provide free energy for hiss wave amplification. This new finding is critical for understanding the generation of plasmaspheric hiss and its response to solar wind and substorm activity.