Whistler Mode Wave Refractive Index in a Finite Temperature Anisotropic Plasma Medium

Authors

  • Marek Gołkowski Department of Electrical Engineering University of Colorado Denver Denver, CO USA
  • Ashanthi Maxworth Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies Department of Physics and Engineering Physics University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Keywords:

oblique whistler waves, radiation belts, raytracing, warm plasma, whistler mode

Abstract

Whistler mode waves, which exist in a magnetized plasma, are prevalent in the Earth's magnetosphere in the extremely low frequency (ELF) and very low frequency (VLF) bands (100 Hz - 30 kHz). Due to the impact of whistler mode waves on space weather processes, it is important to accurately predict the propagation trajectory of these waves and their properties. Numerical raytracing determines the power flow path of the whistler mode waves in the anisotropic medium of the magnetosphere based on local calculation of the refractive index. In the majority of previous work, magnetospheric raytracing has been implemented assuming a cold background plasma (0 K). However, a more accurate description of the magnetospheric plasma includes a background temperature of about 1 eV (11600 K). We present solutions to the dispersion relation that include the effects of finite electron and ion temperatures on the wave refractive index using a warm plasma formulation. Finite temperature effects of the background plasma are shown to be most significant for highly oblique wave normal angles where the refractive index is bounded to smaller values than in the ideal cold plasma approximation.

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References

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Published

2021-07-22

How to Cite

[1]
Marek Gołkowski and Ashanthi Maxworth, “Whistler Mode Wave Refractive Index in a Finite Temperature Anisotropic Plasma Medium”, ACES Journal, vol. 33, no. 10, pp. 1076–1080, Jul. 2021.

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