Mitigation of energetic electrons in the magnetosphere by amplified whistler wave under double cyclotron resonances

Abstract

Abstract. An optimal approach reducing the population of MeV electrons in the magnetosphere is presented. Under a double resonance condition, whistler wave is simultaneously in cyclotron resonance with keV and MeV electrons. The injected whistler waves is first amplified by the background keV electrons via loss-cone negative mass instability to become effective in precipitating MeV electrons via cyclotron resonance elevated chaotic scattering. The numerical results show that a small amplitude whistler wave can be amplified by more than 25 dB. The amplification factor reduces only about 10 dB with a 30 dB increase of the initial wave intensity. Use of an amplified whistler wave to scatter 1.5 MeV electrons from an initial pitch angle of 86.5 • to a pitch angle <50 • is demonstrated. The ratio of the required wave magnetic field to the background magnetic field is calculated to be about 8×10 −4 .