Three lower-band (f < 0.5 fce) chorus riser elements detected in the dayside generation region were studied in detail using the Van Allen Probe data. Two subelements/wave packets within each riser were examined for their wave "frequency" constancy within seven consecutive wave cycles. The seven wave cycles contained the maximum amplitudes of the subelements/packets. Maximum variance B1 zero crossings were used for the identification of wave cycle start and stop times. It is found that the frequency is constant to within~3% (one standard deviation), with no evidence of upward frequency sweeping over the seven cycles. Continuous wavelet power spectra for the duration of the seven cycles confirm this conclusion. The implication is that a chorus riser element is composed of coherent approximately "monochromatic" steps instead of a gradual sweep in frequency over the whole element. There was no upward frequency stepping where the wave amplitude was the largest, contrary to the sideband theory prediction. It is shown that a chorus riser involves instability of cyclotron resonant energetic electrons from~6 to~40 keV at L = 5.8, that is, essentially the whole substorm electron energy spectrum. The above findings may have important consequences for possible wave generation mechanisms. Some new ideas for mechanisms are suggested in conclusion.

Low frequency (LF) ~22 Hz to 200 Hz plasmaspheric hiss was studied using a year of Polar plasma wave data occurring during solar cycle minimum. The waves are found to be most intense in the noon and early dusk sectors. When only the most intense LF (ILF) hiss was examined, they are found to be substorm dependent and most prominent in the noon sector. The noon sector ILF waves were also determined to be independent of solar wind ram pressure. The ILF hiss intensity is independent of magnetic latitude. ILF hiss is found to be highly coherent in nature. ILF hiss propagates at all angles relative to the ambient magnetic field. Circular, elliptical, and linear/highly elliptically polarized hiss have been detected, with elliptical polarization the dominant characteristic. A case of linear polarized ILF hiss that occurred deep in the plasmasphere during geomagnetic quiet was noted. The waveforms and polarizations of ILF hiss are similar to those of intense high frequency hiss. We propose the hypothesis that ~10–100 keV substorm injected electrons gradient drift to dayside minimum B pockets close to the magnetopause to generate LF chorus. The closeness of this chorus to low altitude entry points into the plasmasphere will minimize wave damping and allow intense noon‐sector ILF hiss. The coherency of ILF hiss leads the authors to predict energetic electron precipitation into the mid latitude ionosphere and the electron slot formation during substorms. Several means of testing the above hypotheses are discussed.

Low frequency (LF)~22 Hz to 200 Hz plasmaspheric hiss was studied using a year of Polar plasma wave data occurring during solar cycle minimum. The waves are found to be most intense in the noon and early dusk sectors. When only the most intense LF (ILF) hiss was examined, they are found to be substorm dependent and most prominent in the noon sector. The noon sector ILF waves were also determined to be independent of solar wind ram pressure. The ILF hiss intensity is independent of magnetic latitude. ILF hiss is found to be highly coherent in nature. ILF hiss propagates at all angles relative to the ambient magnetic field. Circular, elliptical, and linear/highly elliptically polarized hiss have been detected, with elliptical polarization the dominant characteristic. A case of linear polarized ILF hiss that occurred deep in the plasmasphere during geomagnetic quiet was noted. The waveforms and polarizations of ILF hiss are similar to those of intense high frequency hiss. We propose the hypothesis that~10-100 keV substorm injected electrons gradient drift to dayside minimum B pockets close to the magnetopause to generate LF chorus. The closeness of this chorus to low altitude entry points into the plasmasphere will minimize wave damping and allow intense noon-sector ILF hiss. The coherency of ILF hiss leads the authors to predict energetic electron precipitation into the mid latitude ionosphere and the electron slot formation during substorms. Several means of testing the above hypotheses are discussed.

Abstract. We present a statistical survey of large-amplitude, asymmetric plasma and magnetic field enhancements detected outside the diamagnetic cavity at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from December 2014 to June 2016. Based on the concurrent observations of plasma and magnetic field enhancements, we interpret them to be magnetosonic waves. The aim is to provide a general overview of these waves' properties over the mission duration. As the first mission of its kind, the ESA Rosetta mission was able to study the plasma properties of the inner coma for a prolonged time and during different stages of activity. This enables us to study the temporal evolution of these waves and their characteristics. In total, we identified ∼ 70 000 steepened waves in the magnetic field data by means of machine learning. We observe that the occurrence of these steepened waves is linked to the activity of the comet, where steepened waves are primarily observed at high outgassing rates. No clear indications of a relationship between the occurrence rate and solar wind conditions were found. The waves are found to propagate predominantly perpendicular to the background magnetic field, which indicates their compressional nature. Characteristics like amplitude, skewness, and width of the waves were extracted by fitting a skew normal distribution to the magnetic field magnitude of individual steepened waves. With increasing mass loading, the average amplitude of the waves decreases, while the skewness increases. Using a modified 1D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model, we investigated if the waves can be described by the combination of nonlinear and dissipative effects. By combining the model with observations of amplitude, width and skewness, we obtain an estimate of the effective plasma diffusivity in the comet–solar wind interaction region and compare it with suitable reference values as a consistency check. At 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, these steepened waves are of particular importance as they dominate the innermost interaction region for intermediate to high activity.

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