A Comparison of Wave Mode Identification Techniques.

Until the advent of the four satellite Cluster mission, the identification of the plasma wave mode was based on the determination of wave properties using dimensionless transport ratios. One of the main drawbacks with these methods is their use of wave properties calculated using simplified plasma models which may not be applicable in all plasma regions. By combining the data sets from the four Cluster spacecraft wave mode identification may be performed based upon data alone. A number of techniques have been developed for this purpose. This paper compares and contrasts the results based upon the phase differencing and K-filtering techniques.