The role of wave-particle interactions in cold plasma heating Seminar Abstract:

Seminar Abstract: The cold plasma of ionospheric origin is a dramatically influential plasma population that dominates the mass of the magnetosphere. The conventional paradigm of current space weather models is that the cold particle populations are a passive medium where key energy exchange processes, such as those associated with wave-particle interactions operate, but do not actively take part in these processes. This is the case for models describing the evolution of the ring current and the outer radiation belt as well as ray-tracing models, where the cold particle populations are only described by an empirical density background. Indeed, we have known for decades that the density of the cold particle populations is a critical factor controlling wave properties (amplitude, wave vector). However, limited theoretical and observational work point to the fact that, through a variety of processes that are rather poorly understood, the cold plasma populations can efficiently couple to the waves and exchange energy. In this talk, I will discuss the role of wave-particle interactions in cold plasma heating, the importance of improved cold ion measurements, the measurement requirements for future missions, and the need for better physics-based models in combination with machine learning applications to augment our understanding of coupling between different plasma populations in the Earth’s magnetosphere. 

=========