Abstract
Whistler mode waves and ECH waves as observed by the THEMIS-D and THEMIS-E satellites have been analyzed. It is observed that ECH waves are very weak for pitch-angle diffusion whereas whistler mode waves are more efficient. Bounce-averaged pitch-angle diffusion rates at the edge of atmospheric loss-cone have been calculated for both waves. Further, these are used to obtain electron precipitation flux inside the loss-cone. The electron flux at the edge of the loss-cone is represented by the kappa distribution. Numerical calculation of precipitation flux is performed by varying the fitting parameters (which determine the shape of electron precipitation flux) appearing in the kappa distribution. Precipitation flux is used to obtain volume excitation rates and height-integrated volume excitation rates for the seven excitation states. Calculations have been performed using two standard atmosphere models corresponding to mean and high solar and geomagnetic activities. It has been observed from studies that the excitation rates produced by the ECH wave are several orders of magnitude smaller than the rates produced by whistler mode waves. We show that the scattering efficiency of whistler Mode is higher than that of ECH waves. The oblique whistler mode waves allow efficient scattering of electrons in diffuse aurora. Outcomes are discussed.
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Data Availability
THEMIS data used in this study are available to the public through UC Berkeley at http://themis.ssl.berkeley.edu/index.shtml. The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author.
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Acknowledgements
This work is carried out with the collaboration of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Bangalore, India. Computer facilities provided by IIT (BHU) and Dr. A.K. Pandey from BHU are highly recognized for the calculations reported in the present work.
Funding
Dr D. Wendel was supported by NASA grant N NH 14ZDA 001N- HSR.
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Tripathi, A.K., Singhal, R.P. & Wendel, D.E. Diffuse auroral intensities produced by whistler mode and electron cyclotron harmonic waves. Astrophys Space Sci 368, 61 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-023-04217-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-023-04217-y