Direct observations of cross-scale wave-particle energy transfer in space plasmas

Abstract

The collisionless plasmas in space and astrophysical environments are intrinsically multiscale in nature, behaving as conducting fluids at macroscales and kinetically at microscales comparable to ion and/or electron gyroradii. A fundamental question in understanding the plasma dynamics is how energy is transported and dissipated across scales. Here, we present spacecraft measurements in the terrestrial foreshock, a region upstream of the bow shock where the solar wind population coexists with the reflected ions. In this region, the fluid-scale, ultralow-frequency waves resonate with the reflected ions to modify the velocity distributions, which in turn cause the growth of the ion-scale, magnetosonic-whistler waves. The latter waves then resonate with the electrons, and the accelerated electrons contribute to the excitation of electron-scale, high-frequency whistler waves. These observations demonstrate that the chain of wave-particle resonances is an efficient mechanism for cross-scale energy transfer, which could redistribute the kinetic energy and accelerate the particles upstream of the shocks.