Whistler waves in the quasi-parallel and quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath

TL;DR

This study statistically analyzes whistler waves in Earth's magnetosheath, revealing their occurrence, properties, and impact on electron pitch-angle scattering, with higher occurrence in quasi-perpendicular regions and significant effects on electron dynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale statistical characterization of whistler waves in the magnetosheath, quantifying their properties and role in electron scattering.

Findings

Higher whistler occurrence in quasi-perpendicular MSH

Whistler waves have median frequency of 0.2 times electron cyclotron frequency

Whistlers cause significant pitch-angle scattering of electrons

Abstract

In the Earth's magnetosheath (MSH), several processes contribute to energy dissipation and plasma heating, one of which is wave-particle interactions between whistler waves and electrons. However, the overall impact of whistlers on electron dynamics in the MSH remains to be quantified. We analyze 18 hours of burst-mode measurements from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, including data from the unbiased magnetosheath campaign during February-March 2023. We present a statistical study of 34,409 whistler waves found using automatic detection. We compare wave occurrence in the different MSH geometries and find three times higher occurrence in the quasi-perpendicular MSH compared to the quasi-parallel case. We also study the wave properties and find that the waves propagate quasi-parallel to the background magnetic field, have a median frequency of 0.2 times the electron cyclotron frequency, median amplitude of 0.03-0.06 nT (30-60 pT), and median duration of a few tens of wave periods. The whistler waves are preferentially observed in local magnetic dips and density peaks and are not associated with an increased temperature anisotropy. Also, almost no whistlers are observed in regions with parallel electron plasma beta lower than 0.1. Importantly, when estimating pitch-angle diffusion times we find that the whistler waves cause significant pitch-angle scattering of electrons in the MSH.