Whistler propagation and modulation in the presence of nonlinear Alfvén waves

12Citations
Citations of this article
9Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

This paper presents the modulation of whistler waves due to linear interactions between a weak whistler signal and a pump kinetic Alfvén wave (KAW) in intermediate-β(me/mi≪β≪) plasmas (whereβ is the ratio of the ion sound speed to the Alfvén speed). As a consequence of ponderomotive nonlinearity, the pump KAW becomes filamented when its power exceeds the threshold for the filamentation instability. The periodic enhancements of the whistler amplitude occur in the locations where the beam width is narrower and are thus produced by the focusing of the whistler beam. Our results reveal that KAW has a (magnetic) power spectrum with an approximate scaling of k-5/3 (where k is k). The amplified whistler has electric field power spectra that are steeper than k -8/3 (where k is k). These results are consistent with recent observations by the Cluster spacecraft in the magnetotail region of the Earth's magnetosphere. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Sharma, R. P., Goldstein, M. L., Dwivedi, N. K., & Chauhan, P. K. (2010). Whistler propagation and modulation in the presence of nonlinear Alfvén waves. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 115(12). https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JA015123

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free