Emergence of Electron Distributions Related to Banded Chorus Excitation

Abstract:

Two-dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations are performed to investigate the emergence of electron velocity distributions with an “anisotropy gap” in the radiation belts. Such distributions have been shown to be able to excite banded chorus as anisotropic electrons with T_⊥/T_||>1 at different T_|| , where || and ⊥ denote directions relative to the background geomagnetic field, can drive the whistler anisotropy instability in the upper- and lower-bands, independently. Energy-dependent convection and loss of the electrons in the radiation belts can generally lead to anisotropic electrons which, subsequently, excite whistler waves. As a simplification of reality, the simulations in the present study start with an electron distribution which is constantly anisotropic at all energies. The anisotropic electrons lead to growth of whistlers in the system. The enhanced waves, in turn, scatter the electrons and reduce their anisotropy. Interestingly, the reduction of anisotropy is more dramatic for electrons with intermediate energies. An anisotropy gap arises as a natural consequence of the self-consistent wave-particle interactions and, in the quasi-steady phase of the simulations, produces the banded structure in the spectrum of the enhanced whistler waves.