Observations of Rising Tone Chorus Emissions at Indian Low Latitude Ground Station and Their Generation Mechanism

Abstract

Chorus emissions are the most common form of very low frequency (VLF) emissions in the Earth’s magnetosphere which typically consist of a series of rising tones generated near the magnetic equator, excited by energetic electrons injected into the inner magnetosphere. In the present study, observation of chorus emissions recorded at Indian low latitude ground station Jammu (geomag. lat., 19 26 N; L = 1.17) during a geomagnetic quiet period on 24 February, 1999 is reported. The spectral analysis of recorded chorus emissions shows that each chorus element originates from the upper edge of the underlying hiss band. The observed mean chorus element parameters are as follows: lower band frequency fmin = 1.2 kHz, upper band frequency fUB = 1.96 kHz, frequency sweep rate df/dt = 1.14 kHz/s and repetition period T = 2.5 s. To explain the observed dynamic spectra of these chorus emissions, a possible generation mechanism is presented based on the recent nonlinear theory. It is observed that the seeds of chorus emissions grow from the saturation level of the whistler-mode instability at the equator and then propagate away from the equator as a result of a nonlinear growth mechanism that depends on the wave amplitude. On the basis of this theory, frequency sweep rate of chorus emission is computed and compared with that of our experimentally observed values, which shows, in general, a good agreement.