Whistler Waves in Space and Laboratory Plasmas
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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 104, NO. A7, PAGES 14,379-14,395, JULY 1, 1999 Whistlerwaves in spaceand laboratoryplasmas R. L. Stenzel Department of Physicsand Astronomy,University of California, Los Angeles Abstract. An overviewof whistler wave phenomenain space and laboratory plasmasis given. Common features and different approachesbetween laboratory and spaceplasma researchare pointed out. Both researchactivities have discovered a rich variety of whistler wave effects. Many useful applicationshave emerged. Open researchtopics and interactions between lab and spaceresearch on whistlers are pointed out. 1. Introduction called "helicons." Thus a reader from the space sci- Whistler waves are possiblyone of the first plasma ence community should simply interpret a laboratory waves observed. These waves have been studied for whistler as any wave propagating in the whistler mode more than 100 years. A vast body of literature exists irrespective of its excitation mechanism. on whistlers and related phenomena in at least three ar- Historically, whistler wave researchstarted with pas- eas: spaceplasmas, laboratory plasmas, and solid state sive ground observationsof low-frequency radio waves physics. It is impossibleto present a comprehensive from the ionosphere. Space plasma researchblossomed review on this field in a short article. Instead of an in the era of spacecraftexploration. A wealth of whistler in-depth review in any particular area, this article at- wave phenomena has been collected. Remote observa- tempts to convey the large variety of whistler wave ef- tions from ground, point measurementsfrom space,and fects discoveredby complementarymethods in space lack of parameter control have sometimes caused diffi- and laboratory plasmas. In the spirit of the conference culties in explaining the observations uniquely. This where this material was presented[Interrelationships lead to the desire to study whistlers in a controlled Between Plasma Experimentsin the Laboratory and laboratory plasma. After the developmentof suitably Space(IPELS), Maui, Hawaii,June 23-27, 1997], this is large and collisionlesslaboratory plasmas and advanced an "interdisciplinary"review article which does not only plasma diagnostics many contributions on linear and focus on whistler phenomenain space plasmas. The nonlinear whistler waveswere made in laboratory plas- latter hasbeen thoroughly done in classicalbooks [Hel- mas. Phenomena like resonance cones, beam-driven liwell,1965], long review articles [Al'pert, 1980], and an VLF hiss, filamentation instabilities, antenna proper- abundanceof topicalreviews [Helliwell, 1988; Sazhin et ties, whistler wings, etc., added to the knowledge of al., 1992;Hayakawa, 1992; $azhin and Hayakawa,1992; whistler waves. The purpose of the present paper is $ingh, 1993; $azhin et al., 1993; $azhin and Hayakawa, to describethe major findings in both areas of whistler 1994; Hayakawa, 1995; Sonwalkar, 1995; Johnstone, researchso as to possiblystimulate new investigations. 1996; Singhet al., 1998]. After a brief historicbackground, the followingsections There exist different terminologiesfor whistler waves presentwhistler properties, major findingsin spaceand in the space and laboratory communities. In space laboratory plasmas, a sectionof emergingapplications science, a "whistle" is specifically defined as an elec- of whistler waves,and presently open questionsfor fur- ther research on whistlers. tromagnetic wave excited by lightning and dispersed whilepropagating through the ionosphereand magneto- sphere. All other excitation mechanisms lead to "whis- 2. Brief History tler-mode wave." Depending on their sound and spec- More than 100 yearsago, Preece [1894] reported that trogramsthey are given many exotic namessuch as hiss, operators on the Liverpool-Hamburg telephone lines roar, saucers,chorus, risers, hooks, triggered emissions, heard strange rumbling soundsnot produced by man. etc.. In laboratory plasma physicsany wave propagat- No explanation was given for these "Earth currents." ing in the whistler mode is simply called a "whistler Following the developmentof vacuum tube amplifiers, wave." However, in bounded laboratory plasmas, in Barkhausen[1919] describes observations of "Pfeift6ne" particular solid state plasmas, these waves are often (whistlingtones) on longwire antennasand relatestheir occurrenceto lightning, auroral activities, and wave dis- Copyright 1999 by the American GeophysicalUnion. persion. Such whistlersconsist of electromagneticsig- Paper number 1998JA900120. nals which, after conversionto sound, produce falling 0148-0227/99/1998JA900120509.00 tones from a few kHz downward, lasting up to several 14,379 14,380 STENZEL:WHISTLER-MODE WAVES IN SPACEAND THE LABORATORY seconds.In the 1920sand 30s Eckersley[1935] pursued over long distancesalong B0. All groundobservations the researchon "musical atmospherics," quantified the of whistlers,in particular the multiply reflectedwhis- dispersion, and related the phenomenon to radiowave tlers, involve ducting. Even narrow density troughs propagationin the ionosphere. The evolution of the (d < All),requiring an eigenmodeanalysis [Sodha and magnetoionictheory [Appleton, 1932] produced a quan- Tripathi,1977], exhibit remarkablygood ducting prop- titative understandingfor the dispersionof plane whis- erties[Stenzel, 1976b]. tler wavesin coldplasmas [Storey, 1953; Ratcliffe, 1959]. Plane whistler waves can decay because of electron After World War II a nearly explosivegrowth started collisionswith neutrals and ions, becauseof collisionless in whistlerwave research. It was stimulatedby (1) the electroncyclotron damping (•- • = k-ve), and be- era of satellites, enabling in situ observationsin space, causeof Landaudamping for obliquemodes (• = k-v•). (2) the developmentof plasma sources,enabling con- The latter two mechanismscan also give rise to insta- trolled laboratory experiments,and (3) advancedthe- bilities when the distribution function at the resonant ory and numerical simulations for whistler instabilities velocity has a positive slope. The stability of whistlers and nonlinearities. A vast body of knowledgeon whis- in plasmas with non-Maxwellian distribution functions tler modes has been accumulated and is continuing to has been studiedtheoretically in detail [Lee and Craw- grow because of ongoing basic research in all areas. n ford, 1970]. Nonlinearwhistler phenomena will be de- parallel, many interesting applicationsof whistler-mode scribed below in connection with observations. waves are arising such as imaging subterranean struc- tures[Thiel et al., 1996],predictions of earthquakesand volcaniceruptions [Hayakawa et al., 1993;Molchanov et 4. Observations of Magnetospheric al., 1993],electron cyclotron and heliconplasma sources Whistlers and Whistler-Mode Waves for industrial applications[Stevens and Cecchi,1993; 4.1. Ground-Based Measurements Chen, 1996], high power plasma switches[Weber et al., 1996],directional whistler antennas, etc., to be de- The earliest and most common observations of whis- scribed below. tlers are performedwith long-wire antennas,amplifiers, and conversionto sound. The signalsmay be recorded and displayed as spectrogramssuch as the one shown 3. Properties of Linear Whistler Modes in Figure i [Potter, 1951]. The observedwhistlers are Whistler waves are electromagnetic waves in magne- excited by natural lightning, couplethrough the Earth- tized plasmas at frequencies below the electron Lar- ionosphericwaveguide into an ionosphericduct, and un- mot frequency, • _< •ce, for electron plasma frequen- dergo singleor multiple reflectionsat conjugatepoints cies, OJpe• OJceand OJpe• OJce.The low frequency [Smith,1961]. Ducted whistlersare observablefor fre- limit of "electron" whistlers is the lower hybrid fre- quenciesbelow half the minimum gyrofrequencyalong quency,•lh • (•ceo:•i)•/2 There are also "hydro- the L shelldetermined by the observer'slatitude [Car- magnetic" whistler modes in the range of the ion cy- penter, 1968]. Rarely, unductedwhistlers are observed clotron frequency,o:•i [Russell et al., 1971; Albert, on the ground[Sonwalkar, 1995; Ohta et al., 1997]. 1980]. Whistler modesare dispersivewaves (group and Although whistler wave propagation is firmly based phase velocitiesare frequencydependent), which can on the theory of ducting, direct measurementsof wave propagate oblique to the static magnetic field B0 up to propagation in ducts cannot be performed from the a limiting "resonancecone" angle, given for electrons by Ophase,,•ax= cos-•(•/•). Near the obliqueres- Signal onance the group and phase velocities are essentially 10 orthogonal, and the wave energy is dominated by the electricfield. For frequencies• < •e/2 there existsan obliquemode at Op•as•- cos-• (2•/•c•) with parallel groupvelocity called the Gendrinmode [Gendrin, 1961]. Frequency Along the directionof wave propagation(k) the wave (kHz) magnetic field is right-hand circularly polarized. The electric field of oblique whistlers has both spacecharge and inductive contributions,E - -V•- OA/Ot. At an oblique density discontinuity the reflection of whis- tlers produces two reflected and one transmitted mode 0 Time (s) • [Lee, 1969]. Refractionof whistlersin densitynonuni- Figure 1. Typical spectrogramof ionosphericwhis- formitieshas been studiedcarefully [Smith, 1961; Hel- tler waves observedon the ground. The (top) re- liwell, 1965; Walker,1976] since it explainsthe remark- ceived waveform is Fourier an&lyzedand (bottom) able ducting properties of whistlers. Ducting