Whistler wave generation by electron temperature anisotropy during asymmetric magnetic reconnection in space
POSTER
Abstract
Generation of whistler waves during asymmetric reconnection is studied by analyzing data from a MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale) event [1]. In particular, the possible role of electron temperature anisotropy in excitation of whistler waves on the magnetosphere side is discussed. The local electron distribution function is fitted into a sum of bi-Maxwellian distribution functions. Then, the dispersion relation solver, WHAMP (waves in homogeneous, anisotropic, multicomponent plasmas [2]), is used to obtain the local dispersion relation and growth rate of the whistler waves. We compare the theoretical calculations with the measured dispersion relation. \\ [][1] Burch et al., Science 352, aaf2939, 2016\\ [][2] Rönnmark, Tech. Rep., Kiruna Geophys. Inst., Kiruna, Sweden, 1982
*This work was made possible by funding from the Department of Energy for the Summer Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program. This work is supported by the US DOE Contract No.DE-AC02-09CH11466.