Anomalous foreshock field-aligned beams observed by Cluster

摘要

We report occasional observations of two simultaneously distinct ion foreshock components recorded by the Cluster spacecraft upstream of the Earth's bow shock. In most occurrences, the lower-energy population originates as a field-aligned beam (FAB) associated with quasiperpendicular regions, which loses energy as the IMF rotates into oblique geometries. A second beam, with energies in excess of ~10keV, appears sometimes in association with the onset of ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves, and sometimes ahead of the appearance of the latter. Measurements from the mass spectrometer indicate that both beams consist of protons. While the lower-speed beam is wellaccounted for by a known reflection mechanism, the nonradial IMF orientations as well as other arguments seem to rule out magnetosheath or magnetospheric sources for the higher energy component. The wave characteristics are typical of the oblique foreshock and we have found that they are in cyclotron-resonance with the low speed beam (FAB). These observations constitute a theoretical challenge since conventional mechanisms described in the literature cannot account for the production of beams at two different energies.