PIC Simulations of Banded Chorus Events from Van Allen Probes Observations

Banded chorus emissions are whistler waves with two bands separated by a narrow gap at 0.5ω_ce (ω_ce is the elctron gyro-frequency) in the frequency spectrum, often observed in the inner magnetosphere. The physical reason for the gap is still puzzling the space community. To better understand banded chorus generation, we identify occurrences of banded chorus in the Van Allen Probes EMFISIS data. Prameters derived from observations are used as initial conditions for our linear theory and nonlinear particle-in-cell simulations. By comparing our simulation results with electron pitch angle distributions from HOPE and wave spectra from EMFISIS, we will test some hypotheses for generation of banded chorus. LA-UR-13-26132.