Occurrence Rates and Variability of Whistler-Mode Waves in the Plasma Trough

Abstract

Numerical models of energetic electron behavior in the outer radiation belt require descriptions of the wave-particle interactions across the inner magnetosphere. Quasilinear diffusion coefficients describe gyro-resonant wave-particle interactions over large time- and length-scales but these must be constrained by observations to construct realistic radiation belt models. Recent work indicates the importance of identifying and including realistic spatiotemporal variation of diffusion coefficients. In this paper, we study the spatiotemporal variability of whistler-mode waves outside the plasmasphere, typically referred to as whistler-mode chorus. We separately consider the probability of (a) parts of the model domain being outside the plasmasphere, and (b) the probability of detecting wave activity should that part of the model domain be outside the plasmasphere. We discover that the spatiotemporal variability of whistler-mode waves significantly differs across the model domain; we propose that wave power variability in short wave intervals ($\sim 5$ min) is a useful characteristic to distinguish between two types of whistler-mode waves, especially where their frequency ranges overlap. Our novel spatiotemporal variability analysis indicates that low variability waves are dayside exohiss whose typically high occurrence rate ($\sim 0.8$) decreases with substorm activity, and high variability waves are sporadic post-midnight/dawn sector substorm-driven chorus with a typical occurrence rate of 0.2. Further, although previous studies often combine the occurrence rates and wave characteristics into climatological averages of chorus wave power, this study highlights the importance of separating the study of occurrence rates and power of the waves, since each can have a different relationship with driving factors.