On O+ ion heating by BBELF waves at low altitude: Test particle simulations

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to identify how broadband ELF waves heat O+ ions at low altitudes, revealing cyclotron acceleration by short-scale waves as the dominant mechanism and establishing a gyroradius-based heating limit.

Contribution

It demonstrates that ion heating at low altitudes is primarily driven by cyclotron acceleration from short-scale electrostatic waves, and derives the ion gyroradius limit both numerically and analytically.

Findings

Cyclotron acceleration by short-scale EIC waves is key to ion heating.

Ion gyroradius limit from EIC wave heating is 0.28 times the perpendicular wavelength.

Small-scale Alfvén waves are ineffective for ion heating at low altitudes.

Abstract

We investigate mechanisms of wave-particle heating of ionospheric O$^{+}$ ions resulting from broadband extremely low frequency (BBELF) waves using numerical test particle simulations that take into account ion-neutral collisions, in order to explain observations from the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP) satellite at low altitudes ($\sim$400 km)[Shen et al., 2018]. We argue that in order to reproduce ion temperatures observed at e-POP altitudes, the most effective ion heating mechanism is through cyclotron acceleration by short-scale electrostatic ion cyclotron (EIC) waves with perpendicular wavelengths $\lambda_{\perp}$$\leq$200 m. The interplay between finite perpendicular wavelengths, wave amplitudes, and ion-neutral collision frequencies collectively determine the ionospheric ion heating limit, which begins to decrease sharply with decreasing altitude below approximately 500 km, where the ratio $\frac{\nu_c}{f_{ci}}$ becomes larger than 10$^{-3}$, $\nu_c$ and $f_{ci}$ denoting the O$^+$--O collision frequency and ion cyclotron frequency. We derive, both numerically and analytically, the ion gyroradius limit from heating by an EIC wave at half the cyclotron frequency. The limit is 0.28$\lambda_{\perp}$. The ion gyroradius limit from an EIC wave can be surpassed either through adding waves with different $\lambda_{\perp}$, or through stochastic "breakout", meaning ions diffuse in energy beyond the gyroradius limit due to stochastic heating from large-amplitude waves. Our two-dimensional simulations indicate that small-scale ($<$1 km) Alfv\'en waves cannot account for the observed ion heating through trapping or stochastic heating.