Unique Banded Structures of Plasmaspheric Hiss Waves in the Earth’s Magnetosphere

Plasmaspheric hiss is an electromagnetic wave mode that occurs ubiquitously in the high-density plasmasphere and contributes crucially to the dynamic behavior of the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts. While plasmaspheric hiss is commonly considered to be a broadband emission with frequencies from ∼100 Hz to several kHz, here we report Van Allen Probes measurements of unambiguous banded signatures of plasmaspheric hiss, uniquely characterized by an upper band above ∼200 Hz, a lower band below ∼100 Hz and a power gap in between. Banded plasmaspheric hiss occurs with the probability ∼8% in the postnoon sector within 2.5-5.0 Earth radii, showing strong dependence on geomagnetic and solar wind conditions. Observations also suggest that banded hiss waves result possibly from two combined sources, the upper band originating from the transformation of chorus waves propagating from outside the plasmasphere, and the lower band from localized excitation inside the plasmasphere, which however requires future investigation. The banded hiss waves shed new light on the evolution of the Earth’s radiation belts and have implications for understanding whistler-mode waves in planetary magnetospheres.

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