On the phase difference of ECH waves obtained from the interferometry observation by the Arase satellite

Abstract We analyzed electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic waves observed by the interferometry observation mode of the Arase satellite. It is found that the magnitude of the phase difference varies with the satellite spin. The spin dependence of this phase difference was investigated by examining the trend of the spin dependence for the 84 events of interferometry observation of ECH waves. We found that they are divided into two categories. One is that the phase difference tends to show sinusoidal variations as a function of the angle $$\gamma _B$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>γ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>B</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> between the ambient magnetic field projected on the spin plane and the electric field sensor. The other is that the phase difference is close to zero and does not depend on $$\gamma _B$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>γ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>B</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> . A numerical model of interferometry observation of single plane wave is constructed to explain the observed phase differences. We performed the numerical calculations when the background magnetic field was oriented in the direction often observed in the Arase satellite. The result of the calculations shows the wave vector direction relates to the spin angle with the maximum phase difference. Using this relation, we show that it may be possible to estimate the wave vector direction of ECH waves from one-dimensional interferometry data. This is expected to enable more accurate estimates of phase velocity. Graphical Abstract