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Origin Of Hiss In Upper Atmosphere Identified

Date:
March 6, 2008
Source:
University of California - Los Angeles
Summary:
Scientists have solved a 40-year-old puzzle, identifying the origin of an intense wave in the Earth's upper atmosphere that controls the Van Allen radiation belts. These belts consist of high-energy electrons that can damage satellites and spacecraft. The source of these low-frequency radio waves in space turns out not to be lightning or instabilities from a plasma, as previously proposed, but rather an intense electromagnetic wave type called chorus, which energizes electrons.
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Scientists have solved a 40-year-old puzzle by identifying the origin of the intense radio waves in the Earth's upper atmosphere that control the dynamics of the Van Allen radiation belts -- belts consisting of high-energy electrons that can damage satellites and spacecraft and pose a risk to astronauts performing activities outside their spacecraft.

The source of these low-frequency radio waves, which are known as plasmaspheric hiss, turns out to be not lightning or instabilities from a plasma, as previously proposed, but an intense electromagnetic wave type called "chorus," which energizes electrons and was initially thought to be unrelated to hiss, said Jacob Bortnik, a researcher with the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

"That chorus waves are the dominant source of plasmaspheric hiss was a complete surprise," said Bortnik.

"Numerous theories to explain the origin of hiss have been proposed over the past four decades, but none have been able to account fully for its observed properties," Bortnik said. "Here, we show that a different wave type, called chorus, can propagate into the plasmasphere from tens of thousands of kilometers away and evolve into hiss. Our new model naturally accounts for the observed frequency band of hiss, its incoherent nature, its day-night asymmetry in intensity, its association with solar activity and its spatial distribution.

"The connection between chorus and hiss is very interesting because chorus is instrumental in the formation of high-energy electrons outside the plasmasphere, while hiss depletes these electrons at lower equatorial altitudes," he said.

Beginning in the late 1960s, spacecraft observations of wideband electromagnetic noise at frequencies below a few kilohertz established the presence of a steady, incoherent noise band in the frequency range between 200 Hz and 1 kHz. This emission was dubbed plasmaspheric hiss because of its unstructured nature, its spectral resemblance to audible hiss and its confinement to the plasmasphere, a dense plasma region around the Earth.

Bortnik was initially studying chorus, not hiss, when he made the discovery -- one of many examples of serendipity in science.

Hiss tends to be confined inside of the plasmasphere, and chorus outside of it. Bortnik was modeling chorus because he knew it was important in creating high-energy electrons in space. While chorus occurs outside the plasmasphere, it leaks inside of it.

A better understanding of plasmaspheric hiss will help scientists to more accurately model the behavior of the high-energy electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts and thus improve their forecasts of space conditions, Bortnik said.

The findings appear March 6 in the journal Nature. Co-authors of the research are Richard M. Thorne, UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, and Nigel P. Meredith at the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, U.K. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation.


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University of California - Los Angeles. "Origin Of Hiss In Upper Atmosphere Identified." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 March 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080305173341.htm>.
University of California - Los Angeles. (2008, March 6). Origin Of Hiss In Upper Atmosphere Identified. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080305173341.htm
University of California - Los Angeles. "Origin Of Hiss In Upper Atmosphere Identified." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080305173341.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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