O⁺ heating in the high altitude cusp and mantle due to wave-particle interaction

Abstract: This thesis is composed of three articles, which have the common denominator that they are studies of heating of oxygen ions in the high altitude cusp and mantle in the terrestrial magnetosphere. All data analysis are based on observational data from the Cluster satellites. Oxygen ions originate in the ionosphere, from where they flow up along open cusp field lines. This upflowing ionospheric plasma is generally gravitationally bound and will return as ionospheric downflow. However, if the plasma is sufficiently energized it may overcome gravity and reach the magnetosphere. Further energization is able to put the plasma on trajectories leading downstream along the magnetotail, which may cause the plasma to escape into the magnetosheath. This thesis considers energization of oxygen ions through wave-particle interactions. We show that the average electric spectral densities in the altitude range of 8-15 Earth radii are able to explain the average perpendicular temperatures, using a simple gyroresonance model and 50% of the observed spectral density at the O+ gyrofrequency. We also show that the phase velocities derived from the observed low frequency electric and magnetic fields are consistent with Alfvén waves. Strong heating is sporadic and spatially limited. For three case studies of strong heating, we show that the regions of enhanced wave activity are at least one order of magnitude larger than the gyroradius of the ions, which is a condition for the gyroresonance model to be valid. An analysis indicates that enhanced perpendicular temperatures can be observed over several Earth radii after heating has ceased, suggesting that high perpendicular-to-parallel temperature ratio is not necessarily a sign of local heating. This also explains why we sometimes observe enhanced temperatures and low spectral densities. Three events of very high temperatures and simultaneously observed high spectral densities were studied, and we showed that the temperatures could be explained with the simple gyrofrequency model. We have also provided average diffusion coefficients at different altitudes, which can be used for ion heating and outflow modeling.