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A simulation study of electron hole distributions

1989; American Geophysical Union; Volume: 16; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1029/gl016i010p01137

1944-8007

M. Ashour‐Abdalla, R. L. Richard, F. V. Coroniti,

Seismic Waves and Analysis

Narrowband electrostatic noise (NEN) is frequently observed in the Earth‧s distant magnetotail. NEN exhibits a spectral peak between 100 and 316 Hz and is very impulsive, having a peak amplitude in the range 10 −4 −10 −3 V/m √ Hz . It has been suggested that NEN represents a plasma wave mode which results from a hole in the low energy electron velocity distribution. In this paper, it is shown by means of numerical simulation that a wave mode is excited in the presence of a modest sized electron hole. In the simulations the mode saturates at low amplitudes, in agreement with observations, without destroying the hole. It is suggested that the burst‐like behavior of NEN is due to the persistence of these nonstandard modes and their ability to be excited by a variety of weak free energy sources.