Very low frequency (VLF) signals emitted by worldwide spread ground-based man-made transmitters mainly propagate in Earth-ionospheric waveguides and are used for submarine communication. A portion of these signals penetrate the ionosphere and leak into the magnetosphere when the ionospheric electron density decreases on the nightside due to the attenuated sunlight. The VLF transmitter signals in the magnetosphere can scatter electrons with energy of several hundred keV in the inner radiation belt into the drift loss cone through cyclotron resonance. This is an important loss mechanism for electrons in the inner radiation belt and plays an important role in transferring energy and mass from magnetosphere to ionosphere. Electrons scattered by transmitter signals exhibit a “wisp” characteristic in L-Ek spectrum, satisfying the first-order cyclotron resonance relationship between the electrons and the transmitter signals. The “wisp” spectrum can be clearly observed by low earth orbit satellites, presenting opportunities to study wave-particle interactions in near-Earth space. In this study, using the Drift-Diffusion-Source model, we reproduce the “wisp” spectrum formed by scattering effects of NWC transmitter signals observed by DEMETER satellite on March 19, 2009. Our simulation results suggest that the equatorial pitch angle of electrons, observed by DEMETER, varies with the longitude, resulting in distinctions in the observed “wisp” spectrum along different longitudes. Specifically, as the satellite approaches South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region, both the energy range and flux level of the observed “wisp” spectrum gradually increase. When the previously studied wave normal angle model (with a central wave normal angle of 60°) and the background electron density model are used, the energy range of the simulated “wisp” spectra is higher than the observed value. Adjusting the central wave normal angle to 40° or increasing the background density by a factor of 1.3, the simulated results accord well with the observations. Our results elucidate the scattering effect of NWC transmitter signals on electrons in the radiation belt, and emphasize the importance of analyzing the formation of “wisp” spectrum for understanding wave-particle interactions in near-earth space. Additionally, the Drift-Diffusion-Source model can be used to study wave-particle interactions in the inner radiation belt, helping to develop radiation belt remediation technology.
DownLoad:
