Low frequency wave sources in the outer magnetosphere, magnetosheath, and near Earth solar wind

摘要

The interaction of the solar wind with the Earth magnetosphere generates abroad variety of plasma waves through different mechanisms. The four Clusterspacecraft allow one to determine the regions where these waves are generatedand their propagation directions. One of the tools which takes fulladvantage of the multi-point capabilities of the Cluster mission is the wavetelescope technique which provides the wave vector using a plane waverepresentation. In order to determine the distance to the wave sources, thesource locator – a generalization of the wave telescope to spherical waves– has been recently developed. We are applying the source locator tomagnetic field data from a typical traversal of Cluster from the cusp regionand the outer magnetosphere into the magnetosheath and the near Earth solarwind. We find a high concentration of low frequency wave sources in theelectron foreshock and in the cusp region. To a lower extent, low frequencywave sources are also found in other magnetospheric regions.