Artficial Injection of EMIC Waves from the ISS capable of generating Triggered EMIC emissions in the inner Radiation Belt followed by Microburst Relativistic Electron Precipitation

Abstract:

Magnetospheric missions demonstrated the critical role that Triggered EMIC (TEMIC) emissions play in controlling the flux of Relativistic Electrons (RE) trapped in the Radiation Belts (RB) through nonlinear wave-particle interactions. TEMIC emissions require a threshold amplitude of the triggering wave in addition to anisotropic energetic proton distributions that provide the amplification free energy. In the inner magnetosphere TEMIC emissions are found where where the ring current overlaps the outer plasmasphere and the edges of plasmaspheric drainage plumes,. Their presence results in extremely fast precipitation of RE and energetic protons. Notice however that neither EMIC nor TEMIC waves are present in the inner RB, a region covered by the ISS trajectory despite the presence of copious anisotropic proton fluxes. Active injection of EMIC waves by a low frequency antenna with amplitude exceeding the triggering threshold for TEMIC, approximately B_T≈.1nT at ISS altitude, will allow us to address key science questions such as: (i) What processes drive TEMIC emissions, a nonlinear phenomenon where the injected signal interacting with trapped energetic protons triggers secondary wave emissions that amplify the injected signal by ~30 dB (Omura and Zhao., 2013); (ii)Under which conditions TEMIC emissions lead to microburst precipitation of trapped RE; (iii) Is active EMIC injection a viable technique for Radiation Belt Remediation (RBR). Conventional dipole or loop antennas require large sizes and powers not available. The paper demonstrates that use of the novel, high efficiency Ferrite Loop Antenna (FLA) (Gekelman et al., 2019, Papadopoulos 2019) combined with the intrinsic field guidance of EMIC waves, that for O⁺ at ISS altitudes has a beam pattern (<1^o) , can achieve .1-1 nT amplitude over distances of several hundred km for radiated power of approximately 1 W. A strawman design indicates that threshold can be achieved by 100 turn FLA loop with length 40 cm, radius 2 cm, μ≈100 driven by 1-3 A low frequency AC currents. The paper concludes with a summary of the review of a rejected proposal in response to NASA NNH19ZD001N HFORT that is a classic example of how an incompetent review aided by the restricted NASA rules in allowed response can destroy innovation and science breakthroughs.