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Relativistic Electron Microbursts as High Energy Tail of Pulsating Aurora Electrons
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  • Yoshizumi Miyoshi,
  • Shinji Saito,
  • Satoshi Kurita,
  • Kazushi Asamura,
  • Keisuke Hosokawa,
  • Takeshi Sakanoi,
  • Takefumi Mitani,
  • Yasunobu Ogawa,
  • Shin-ichiro Oyama,
  • Fuminori Tsuchiya,
  • Sarah L Jones,
  • Allison N Jaynes,
  • J Bernard Blake
Yoshizumi Miyoshi
Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Shinji Saito
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
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Satoshi Kurita
Kyoto University
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Kazushi Asamura
The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
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Keisuke Hosokawa
University of Electro-Communications
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Takeshi Sakanoi
Tohoku University
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Takefumi Mitani
ISAS/JAXA
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Yasunobu Ogawa
National Institute of Polar Research
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Shin-ichiro Oyama
Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University
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Fuminori Tsuchiya
Tohoku University
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Sarah L Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA)
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Allison N Jaynes
University of Iowa
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J Bernard Blake
The Aerospace Corporation
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Abstract

In this study, by simulating the wave-particle interactions, we show that sub-relativistic/relativistic electron microbursts form the high-energy tail of pulsating aurora (PsA). Whistler-mode chorus waves that propagate along the magnetic field lines at high latitudes cause precipitation bursts of electrons with a wide energy range from a few keV (PsA) to several MeV (relativistic microbursts). The rising tone elements of chorus waves cause individual microbursts of sub-relativistic/relativistic electrons and the internal modulation of PsA with a frequency of a few Hz. The chorus bursts for a few seconds cause the microburst trains of sub-relativistic/relativistic electrons and the main pulsations of PsA. Our simulation studies demonstrate that both PsA and relativistic electron microbursts originate simultaneously from pitch angle scattering by chorus wave-particle interactions.
16 Nov 2020Published in Geophysical Research Letters volume 47 issue 21. 10.1029/2020GL090360