Direct observations of cross-scale wave-particle energy transfer in space plasmas
The collisionless plasmas in space and astrophysical environments are intrinsically multiscale in nature, behaving as conducting fluids at macroscales and kinetically at microscales comparable to ion and/or electron gyroradii. A fundamental question in understanding the plasma dynamics is how energy is transported and dissipated across scales. Here, we present spacecraft measurements in the terrestrial foreshock, a region upstream of the bow shock where the solar wind population coexists with the reflected ions. In this region, the fluid-scale, ultralow-frequency waves resonate with the reflected ions to modify the velocity distributions, which in turn cause the growth of the ion-scale, magnetosonic-whistler waves. The latter waves then resonate with the electrons, and the accelerated electrons contribute to the excitation of electron-scale, high-frequency whistler waves. These observations demonstrate that the chain of wave-particle resonances is an efficient mechanism for cross-scale energy transfer, which could redistribute the kinetic energy and accelerate the particles upstream of the shocks.
Authors
- C. T. Russell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1639-8298)
- J. L. Burch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0452-8403)
- Jing‐Huan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5579-005X)
- Chao Yue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9720-5210)
- Xu‐Zhi Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4953-1761)
- Qiugang Zong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6414-3794)
- Zhi‐Yang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3800-1044)
- Yoshiharu Omura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6683-3940)
- G. Le (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9504-5214)
- Li Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4109-4448)
- Shan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6783-7759)
Institutions
- Macau University of Science and Technology (MO)
- Southwest Research Institute (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Planetary Science Institute (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics (SE)
- Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (FR)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Peking University (CN)
- Kyoto University (JP)
- Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-02-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr8227
- Citations
- 9
- Primary Topic
- Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 10.39