Spatial Variations of Poloidal and Toroidal Mode Field Line Resonances Observed by MMS

Field line resonances (FLRs) are magnetosphere's responses to solar wind forcing and internal instabilities generated by solar wind-magnetospheric interactions. They are standing waves along the Earth's magnetic field lines oscillating in either poloidal or toroidal modes. The two types of waves have their unique frequency characteristics. The eigenfrequency of FLRs is determined by the length of the field line and the plasma density, and thus gradually changes with L. For toroidal mode oscillations with magnetic field perturbations in the azimuthal direction, ideal MHD predicts that each field line oscillates independently with its own eigenfrequency. For poloidal mode waves with field lines oscillating radially, their frequency cannot change with L easily as L shells need to oscillate in sync to avoid efficient damping due to phase mixing. Observations, mainly during quiet times, indeed show that poloidal mode waves often exhibit nearly constant frequency across L shells. Our recent observations, on the other hand, reveal a clear L-dependent frequency trend for a long lasting storm-time poloidal wave event, indicating the wave can maintain its power with changing frequencies for an extended period [Le et al., 2017]. The spatial variation of the frequency shows discrete spatial structures. The frequency remains constant within each discrete structure that spans about 1 REalong L, and changes discretely. We present a follow-up study to investigate spatial variations of wave frequencies using the Wigner-Ville distribution. We examine both poloidal and toroidal waves under different geomagnetic conditions using multipoint observations from MMS, and compare their frequency and occurrence characteristics for insights into their generation mechanisms. Reference: Le, G., et al. (2017), Global observations of magnetospheric high-m poloidal waves during the 22 June 2015 magnetic storm, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 3456-3464, doi:10.1002/2017GL073048.