Reconstruction of Polarization Properties of Whistler Waves From Two Magnetic and Two Electric Field Components: Application to Parker Solar Probe Measurements

Abstract

The search-coil magnetometer (SCM) aboard Parker Solar Probe (PSP) measures the 3 Hz to 1 MHz magnetic field fluctuations. During Encounter 1, the SCM operated as expected; however, in March 2019, technical issues limited subsequent encounters to two components for frequencies below 1 kHz. Detrimentally, most whistler waves are observed in the affected frequency band where established techniques cannot extract the wave polarization properties under these conditions. Fortunately, the Electric Field Instrument aboard PSP measures two electric field components and covers the affected bandwidth. We propose a technique using the available electromagnetic fields to reconstruct the missing components by neglecting the electric field parallel to the background magnetic field. This technique is applicable with the assumptions of (a) low-frequency whistlers in the plasma frame relative to the electron cyclotron frequency; (b) a small propagation angle with respect to the background magnetic field; and (c) a large wave phase speed relative to the cross-field solar wind velocity. Critically, the method cannot be applied if the background magnetic field is aligned with the affected SCM coil. We have validated our method using burst mode measurements made before March 2019. The reconstruction conditions are satisfied for 80% of the burst mode whistlers detected during Encounter 1. We apply the method to determine the polarization of a whistler event observed after March 2019 during Encounter 2. Our novel method is an encouraging step toward analyzing whistler properties in affected encounters and improving our understanding of wave-particle interactions in the young solar wind.

References in corpus (25)

• Switchbacks in the near-Sun magnetic field: long memory and impact on the turbulence cascade
• The Solar Probe Cup on Parker Solar Probe
• Parker Solar Probe: Four Years of Discoveries at Solar Cycle Minimum
• Electrons in the Young Solar Wind: First Results from the Parker Solar Probe
• Whistler mode waves and the electron heat flux in the solar wind: Cluster observations
• Statistical Study of Whistler Waves in the Solar Wind at 1 AU
• Scattering of Strahl Electrons in the Solar Wind between 0.3 and 1 au: Helios Observations
• Experimental determination of whistler wave dispersion relation in the solar wind
• Whistler wave generation by halo electrons in the solar wind
• Sunward propagating whistler waves collocated with localized magnetic field holes in the solar wind: Parker Solar Probe observations at 35.7 Sun radii
• Localized magnetic field structures and their boundaries in the near-Sun solar wind from Parker Solar Probe measurements
• Electron heat flux in the near-Sun environment
• Particle-In-Cell simulation of whistler heat flux instabilities in the solar wind: heat flux regulation and electron halo formation
• Suprathermal electron strahl widths in the presence of narrow-band whistler waves in the solar wind
• Whistler wave occurrence and the interaction with strahl electrons during the first encounter of Parker Solar Probe
• On the role of solar wind expansion as a source of whistler waves: scattering of suprathermal electrons and heat flux regulation in the inner heliosphere
• Whistler waves observed by Solar Orbiter / RPW between 0.5 AU and 1 AU
• Parker Solar Probe evidence for scattering of electrons in the young solar wind by narrowband whistler-mode waves
• Narrowband large amplitude whistler-mode waves in the solar wind and their association with electrons: STEREO waveform capture observations
• Whistler Waves and Electron Properties in the Inner Heliosphere: Helios Observations
• On quasi-parallel whistler waves in the solar wind
• Flux rope merging and the structure of switchbacks in the solar wind
• Modeling interactions of narrowband large amplitude whistler-mode waves with electrons in the solar wind inside ~.3 AU and at 1 AU using a particle tracing code
• Whistler Wave Observations by \textit{Parker Solar Probe} During Encounter $1$: Counter-Propagating Whistlers Collocated with Magnetic Field Inhomogeneities and their Application to Electric Field Measurement Calibration
• Whistler waves generated inside magnetic dips in the young solar wind: observations of the Search-Coil Magnetometer on board Parker Solar Probe

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Quantifying the diffusion of suprathermal electrons by whistler waves between 0.2 and 1 AU with Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe
• Whistler waves in the young solar wind: statistics of amplitude and propagation direction from Parker Solar Probe Encounters 1-11