资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

The lower hybrid (LH) waves are electrostatic emissions near the LH resonant frequency. They propagate perpendicularly with a small wavelength comparable to Larmor radius of thermal particles and can heat both ions and electrons. In this paper, we statistically study the global distribution of LH waves in the inner magnetosphere by using Van Allen Probes observation from 2012 to 2018. We find that (1) LH waves are commonly observed in the inner magnetosphere. Most LH waves are confined near the magnetic equator with typical amplitudes of 0.02 ∼ 0.2 mV/m and occurrence rates up to 10%. (2) LH waves extend to inner L regions with increasing wave amplitudes as AE* increases. (3) Weak LH waves occur at the nightside inside the plasmapause. Moderate and strong LH waves occur at the nightside and noon inside the plasmapause. As AE* increases, they extend to all MLTs inside the plasmapause and dawnside outside the plasmapause.