Energetic Electron Precipitation Driven by Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron Waves from ELFIN’s Low Altitude Perspective

Abstract

We review comprehensive observations of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave-driven energetic electron precipitation using data collected by the energetic electron detector on the Electron Losses and Fields InvestigatioN (ELFIN) mission, two polar-orbiting low-altitude spinning CubeSats, measuring 50-5000 keV electrons with good pitch-angle and energy resolution. EMIC wave-driven precipitation exhibits a distinct signature in energy-spectrograms of the precipitating-to-trapped flux ratio: peaks at >0.5 MeV which are abrupt (bursty) (lasting ∼17 s, or $\Delta L\sim 0.56$ Δ L ∼ 0.56 ) with significant substructure (occasionally down to sub-second timescale). We attribute the bursty nature of the precipitation to the spatial extent and structuredness of the wave field at the equator. Multiple ELFIN passes over the same MLT sector allow us to study the spatial and temporal evolution of the EMIC wave - electron interaction region. Case studies employing conjugate ground-based or equatorial observations of the EMIC waves reveal that the energy of moderate and strong precipitation at ELFIN approximately agrees with theoretical expectations for cyclotron resonant interactions in a cold plasma. Using multiple years of ELFIN data uniformly distributed in local time, we assemble a statistical database of ∼50 events of strong EMIC wave-driven precipitation. Most reside at $L\sim 5-7$ L ∼ 5 − 7 at dusk, while a smaller subset exists at $L\sim 8-12$ L ∼ 8 − 12 at post-midnight. The energies of the peak-precipitation ratio and of the half-peak precipitation ratio (our proxy for the minimum resonance energy) exhibit an $L$ L -shell dependence in good agreement with theoretical estimates based on prior statistical observations of EMIC wave power spectra. The precipitation ratio’s spectral shape for the most intense events has an exponential falloff away from the peak (i.e., on either side of $\sim 1.45$ ∼ 1.45 MeV). It too agrees well with quasi-linear diffusion theory based on prior statistics of wave spectra. It should be noted though that this diffusive treatment likely includes effects from nonlinear resonant interactions (especially at high energies) and nonresonant effects from sharp wave packet edges (at low energies). Sub-MeV electron precipitation observed concurrently with strong EMIC wave-driven >1 MeV precipitation has a spectral shape that is consistent with efficient pitch-angle scattering down to ∼ 200-300 keV by much less intense higher frequency EMIC waves at dusk (where such waves are most frequent). At ∼100 keV, whistler-mode chorus may be implicated in concurrent precipitation. These results confirm the critical role of EMIC waves in driving relativistic electron losses. Nonlinear effects may abound and require further investigation.

Ionospheric Plasma Density Gradients Associated With Night‐Side Energetic Electron Precipitation

“…Chen et al, , 2011 and electrons (leading to ≤1 MeV electron precipitation, see Summers & Thorne, 2003;Drozdov et al, 2017). Therefore, the present comparison of TEC horizontal gradients with ELFIN observations reveals the presence of a new mechanism of ≤1 MeV electron precipitation in the night side (Angelopoulos et al, 2023;Capannolo et al, 2022;Kim et al, 2021).…”

Upper Limit on Outer Radiation Belt Electron Flux Based on Dynamical Equilibrium

“…Alternatively, it could be due to a non-negligible pitch-angle diffusion of such electrons by EMIC waves, as suggested by several studies (X. Angelopoulos et al, 2023;Capannolo et al, 2019;Denton et al, 2019;Hendry et al, 2017;Zhang, Mourenas, et al, 2021).…”

Properties of Intense H‐Band Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron Waves: Implications for Quasi‐Linear, Nonlinear, and Nonresonant Wave‐Particle Interactions

“…The upper range of this k spectrum allows cyclotron resonant interactions between subrelativistic electrons with waves of much smaller amplitude than the main waves, corresponding to the wavenumber k 0 , which interact with higher energy electrons. Since EMIC wave frequencies ω are lower than the proton gyrofrequency Ω ci and much lower than the electron gyrofrequency Ω ce = 1,836 Ω ci , the cyclotron resonance condition for parallel EMIC waves can be rewritten as kv/Ω ce = 1/(γ cos α), with γ the Lorentz factor, v and α the electron velocity and pitch-angle (Angelopoulos et al, 2023;Summers & Thorne, 2003). Consequently, any magnetic fluctuation of sufficiently low frequency, ω ≪Ω ce , can resonantly scatter low energy electrons if its wave number k is sufficiently high to satisfy the above resonance condition (e.g., see Xu & Egedal, 2022).…”

“…For typical high-k EMIC waves of low amplitudes (Denton et al, 2019), this resonant scattering is proportional to the wave power and much more efficient than purely nonresonant scattering (X. An, Artemyev, et al, 2022;Angelopoulos et al, 2023;Xu & Egedal, 2022). Therefore, the nonresonant electron interactions with EMIC waves could be more precisely recast as nonresonant with the main EMIC waves (at peak wave power) while still resonant with much lower intensity EMIC waves at higher wave numbers k, which usually correspond to higher ω/Ω ci values based on the EMIC wave dispersion relation (Denton et al, 2019;Summers & Thorne, 2003).…”