Nonlinear Wave Growth of Whistler-Mode Hiss Emissions in a Uniform Magnetic Field

We conduct electromagnetic particle simulations in a uniform magnetic environment to verify the nonlinear wave growth process of plasmaspheric hiss in the equatorial plasmasphere. The satisfaction of the separability criterion for coexisting multiple frequency waves in the initial stage of wavenumber-time evolution declares that wave packets are coherent and capable of growing nonlinearly. Spatial and temporal evolutions of two typical modes located in wavenumber-time evolution demonstrate the consistency among wave growths, frequency variations, and inhomogeneity factor S in coherent wave packets, showing that rising and falling tones occur at negative and positive S values, respectively, and an obvious wave growth happens in a reasonable range of S satisfying the second-order resonance condition. Wave packets extracted from wave fields in space and time by a frequency band-pass filter confirm a good agreement between the nonlinear theory and simulation results. The nonlinear growth rates of the extracted wave packets possess similar magnitudes to the growth rates of wave packets in the simulation, and they are much greater than the theoretical linear growth rate, indicating that the nonlinear process is essential in the generation of plasmaspheric hiss.

Automated summary

The study investigates the nonlinear wave growth process of plasmaspheric hiss in the equatorial plasmasphere through electromagnetic particle simulations in a uniform magnetic environment. The analysis of wavenumber-time evolution reveals the coherence and nonlinear growth of wave packets within a specific range of the inhomogeneity factor S.