Electrostatic waves associated with electron beams in the solar wind and foreshock

0452488 - ÚFA 2016 GB eng A - Abstract
Souček, Jan - Tomori, Alexander - Basovník, Marek - Santolík, Ondřej - Fazakerley, A.
Electrostatic waves associated with electron beams in the solar wind and foreshock.
IPELS2015. Pitlochry: IOP Plasma Physics Group, 2015.
[International Workshop on the Interrelationship between Plasma Experiments in the Laboratory and in Space (IPELS2015). 23.08.2015–28.08.2015, Pitlochry]
Institutional support: RVO:68378289
Keywords : foreshock waves * plasma waves * solar wind plasma
Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics

Solar wind electrons reflected and accelerated by the bow shock are known to produce intense plasma waves above and below the electron plasma frequency. While the foreshock waves were observed consistently by various spacecraft, observations of the beams are more difficult due to their transient nature and low density and very few experimental studies on this topic exist. Under favorable conditions the PEACE instrument of Cluster can observe some of the field-aligned electron beams and the beam energy can be derived from the observations. At other times, a plateau in the electron distribution resulting from the dissipation of the beam by wave-particle interaction is observed. We analyzed several long foreshock crossings and performed a statistics of beam energies as a function of location within the foreshock. The results were compared to the existing model of electron acceleration by the bow shock. Individual measured electron distributions were used as an input for dispersion relation calculation and electrostatic PIC simulations and the results were compared with the observed waves.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0253643