SM025-09
MMS Observations of Ion Bernstein Mode Wave-Particle Interaction in the Plasmasheet

Thursday, 10 December 2020: 19:32
Virtual
Scott A Boardsen1, Daniel J Gershman2, Richard Eugene Denton3, Naritoshi Kitamura4, Barbara L Giles2, Frederick D Wilder5 and Robert J Strangeway6, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Heliophysics Science Division, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)Dartmouth College, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hanover, NH, United States, (4)The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, (5)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)Univ California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
As proton shell distributions form in the plasmasheet they can become unstable to the ion Bernstein mode in a high proton beta background [Denton et al., 2010]. The wave electric field has a dominant longitudinal component. However, a magnetic field component is also associated with this mode; whose compressional versus transverse nature is proton beta dependent. For the event we analyze in the central plasma sheet: the wave normal angle is near 90 degrees and from multi spacecraft analysis the wave vector is directed in the +YGSE direction with a wavelength of ~800 km. The wave frequency is ~0.3 Hz (1.2 times the proton cyclotron frequency in the plasma flow frame) which is well below the Nyquist frequency of the Fast Plasma Imager measurements of ions (~3 Hz) and electrons (~17 Hz) allowing one to study the energy flow between waves and particles. We analyze the cyclic and directional energy flow between the particles (ions and electrons) and the wave fields for this event. We also present a statistical study of observations of this wave mode by MMS throughout its mission.
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