The spatio-temporal structure of impulse-generated azimuthalsmall-scale Alfvén waves interacting with high-energy chargedparticles in the magnetosphere

Abstract. It is assumed to date that the energy source of azimuthal small-scale ULF waves in the magnetosphere (azimuthal wave numbers m≧1) is provided by the energetic particles interacting with the waves through the bounce-drift resonance. In this paper we have solved the problem of the bounce-drift instability influence on the spatio-temporal structure of Alfvén waves excited by a source of the type of sudden impulse in a dipole-like magnetosphere. It is shown that the impulse-generated Alfvén oscillation within a time τ~m∕Ω_TN (where Ω_TN is the toroidal eigenfrequency) is a poloidal one, and each field line oscillates with its own eigenfrequency that coincides with the poloidal frequency of a given L-shell. As time elapses, the wave becomes toroidally polarized because of the phase difference of the disturbance, and the oscillation frequency of field lines tends to the toroidal frequency. The drift-bounce instability growth rate becomes smaller during the wave temporal evolution, and the instability undergoes stabilization when the wave frequency coincides with the toroidal eigenfrequency. The total amplification of the wave can be estimated as , where is the wave growth rate at the beginning of the process, when it has its maximum value. The wave amplitude can increase only within a time ~τ, when it is poloidally polarized. After this time, when the wave becomes to be toroidally polarized, it goes damped because of the finite ionospheric conductivity. This is in qualitative agreement with the recent radar experimental data.

Key words. Magnetospheric physics (MHD waves and instabilities). Space plasma physics (kinetic and MHD theory; wave-particle interactions)