Electron Heat Fluxes Generated by Intense Whistler Waves at the Upper Ionospheric Altitudes

Abstract

Whistler-mode waves, chorus and hiss, play a very important role in radiation belt dynamics influencing 10 keV-1 MeV electron energies (Thorne, 2010). This was recognized and widely discussed by many authors considering different aspects of radiation belt physics (e.g.,

Thermal Electron Heat Fluxes Associated With Precipitated Auroral Electrons During the Saint Patrick's Days 2013 and 2015 Geomagnetic Storms

“…The qualitative picture of heat flux formation in aurora was discussed in the papers by Khazanov and Chen (2021), Khazanov et al (2020), andKhazanov, Ma, and and is presented here in Figure 2. This figure has been slightly modified from the previous versions to represent the studies that were performed in this paper.…”

“…This paper focuses on the formation of electron heat fluxes in the region of diffuse aurora where field‐aligned electric field is absent (e.g., Fontaine & Blanc, 1983; Johnstone et al., 1993; Meng et al., 1979; Schumaker et al., 1989) and precipitated electrons are mostly driven by WPI processes. Depending on the nature of wave activities and their space location, STET has been applied to simulate electron precipitation that are triggered by electron cyclotron harmonic whistler‐mode choruses (Khazanov et al., 2015) waves, time domain structures (Khazanov, Shen, et al., 2021) as well as modeling of electron interaction with strong hiss wave activity (Khazanov, Ma, & Chu, 2022).…”

“…This section only outlines the framework that is used in this manuscript to calculate these heat fluxes on the global scale of diffuse aurora occurrence. The heart of the electron heat flux calculation is the STET code that was used in the past for the calculation of this parameter in the regions of midlatitudes (Khazanov, 2010), polar cap (Khazanov, Sibeck, et al., 2019), as well as diffuse (Khazanov et al., 2020; Khazanov, Ma, & Chu, 2022), and discrete auroras (Khazanov, Glocer, & Chu, 2021). We refer readers to these papers for details of such calculations in conjunction with STET code.…”

“…At the DMSP altitudes, electron heat fluxes form in less than 3 min (Khazanov, Ma, & Chu, 2022), and the electron temperature almost instantly responds to their variations (Khazanov et al., 2022) because energy losses at these altitudes are negligible (Khazanov, 2010). The last statements are equally applicable for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.…”

“…The top panel of Figure 11 At the DMSP altitudes, electron heat fluxes form in less than 3 min (Khazanov, Ma, & Chu, 2022), and the electron temperature almost instantly responds to their variations because energy losses at these altitudes are negligible (Khazanov, 2010)…”