Statistical Study of Strong Diffusion of Low-Energy Electrons by Chorus
and ECH Waves Based on In Situ Observations
Abstract
Inner magnetospheric electrons are precipitated into the ionosphere via
pitch-angle (PA) scattering by lower band chorus (LBC), upper band
chorus (UBC), and electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves
at different magnetic latitudes. The PA scattering efficiency of
low-energy electrons (0.1–10 keV) is yet to be investigated via
in situ observations because of difficulties in flux measurements
inside loss cones at the magnetosphere. In this study, we demonstrate
that LBC, UBC, and ECH waves contribute to PA scattering of electrons at
different energies using the Arase (ERG) satellite observation data and
successively detected the loss cone filling, i.e., strong diffusion. For
LBC waves, strong diffusion occurred at energies above
~1 keV, whereas it occurred below ~1 keV
for UBC and ECH waves. The occurrence rate of the strong diffusion by
high-amplitude LBC (>50 pT), UBC (>20 pT), and
ECH (>10 mV/m) waves, respectively, reached
~70%, 20%, and 40% higher than that without
simultaneous wave activity. The energy range where the occurrence rate
was high agreed with the range where the PA diffusion rate of each wave
exceeded the strong diffusion level based on the quasilinear theory.