Hot plasma effects on the dispersion properties of plasmaspheric hiss and its electron diffusion

Abstract

Electron diffusion caused by plasmaspheric hiss is an important mechanism for the loss of electrons in Earth's inner magnetosphere; it has also been considered responsible for the formation of the slot region between inner and outer radiation belts. The cold plasma dispersion relation of plasmaspheric hiss is widely used to quantify the scattering effect of energetic electrons. However, the existence of hot plasma in a realistic magnetospheric plasma environment modifies the dispersion relation of plasmaspheric hiss, thereby affecting wave-induced energetic electron scattering. This paper presents the results of some recent studies on the influence of hot plasma on the dispersion relation and electron scattering effects of plasmaspheric hiss. Using statistical analysis results based on satellite wave observations, the modification of the hiss dispersion relation under the effects of hot plasma was verified. Furthermore, based on typical case analyses and numerical calculations using the quasi-linear diffusion theory, we investigated the dependence of the hiss-driven electron scattering rates on the geomagnetic activities and hot plasma parameters (i.e., temperature anisotropy, hot electron temperature, and hot electron abundance). The results revealed that the cold plasma dispersion relation overestimates the scattering rate of energetic electrons below 100 keV. For electrons above 100 keV, the differences between the cold plasma and hot plasma dispersion relations in terms of the induced scattering rates are somewhat smaller; this indicates that using the cold plasma dispersion relation can lead to the underestimation of the hiss-driven rates of electron pitch angle diffusion at smaller pitch angles and the overestimation of the rates at higher pitch angles. In addition, the cold plasma assumption can cause resonant diffusion down to lower electron energies; however, when the observed hiss wave dispersion curves are used, the resonant electron diffusion tends to extend to smaller pitch angles with a broader range. Notably, the differences in the scattering rates between the cold plasma and hot plasma dispersion relations increase with the hot plasma parameters. Therefore, our results are important for future simulations of the hiss wave-induced electron diffusion processes in the actual magnetospheric plasma environment and the dynamic variability of radiation belt electrons.

Keywords

• plasmaspheric hiss
• dispersion relation
• radiation belt electrons
• electron diffusion
• hot plasma effects