Oral Presentation

PIC Simulations of Magnetosonic Wave in the Dipole Magnetic Field: Equatorial Wave Confinement

Author(s): Kyungguk Min (Chungnam National University, Korea, Republic of)

Presenter: Kyungguk Min (Chungnam National University)

This presentation will introduce our recent effort on PIC simulations of near-equatorial magnetosonic waves in dipole geometry and present some preliminary results from such simulations that may bring a renewed understanding of excitation and propagation of these waves in the inner magnetosphere. First, a two-dimensional simulation model on the drift shell surface will be introduced. Inclusion of the spatial variation in the azimuthal direction, rather than in the radial direction, is necessary to take into account the fact that propagation of magnetosonic waves in the source region is in the azimuthal direction. It will be followed by the results of a simulation where although a free energy source initially has a wide latitudinal extent (as opposed to the widely regarded equator-wave-source mechanism), the amplitude of magnetosonic waves in the system still has a narrow peak about the equator. Finally, the mechanism will be explained and some observational support of the present results will be presented.