High bandwidth measurements of auroral Langmuir waves with multiple antennas

Abstract

The High-Bandwidth Auroral Rocket (HIBAR) was launched from Poker Flat, Alaska, on 28 January 2003 at 07:50 UT towards an apogee of 382 km in the nightside aurora. The flight was unique in having three high-frequency (HF) receivers using multiple antennas parallel and perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field, as well as very low-frequency (VLF) receivers using antennas perpendicular to the magnetic field. These receivers observed five short-lived Langmuir wave bursts lasting from 0.1–0.2 s, consisting of a thin plasma line with frequencies in the range of 2470–2610 kHz that had an associated diffuse feature occurring 5–10 kHz above the plasma line. Both of these waves occurred slightly above the local plasma frequency with amplitudes between 1–100 µV m−1. The ratio of the parallel to perpendicular components of the plasma line and diffuse feature were used to determine the angle of propagation of these waves with respect to the background magnetic field. These angles were found to be comparable to the theoretical Z-infinity angle that these waves would resonate at. The VLF receiver detected auroral hiss throughout the flight at 5–10 kHz, a frequency matching the difference between the plasma line and the diffuse feature. A dispersion solver, partially informed with measured electron distributions, and associated frequency- and wavevector-matching conditions were employed to determine if the diffuse features could be generated by a nonlinear wave–wave interaction of the plasma line with the lower-frequency auroral hiss waves/lower-hybrid waves. The results show that this interpretation is plausible.