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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 113,
A12108,
9 PP., 2008
doi:10.1029/2008JA013656
Observations of three-dimensional Langmuir wave structure
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Measurements of the three-dimensional structure of solar wind Langmuir waves made by the STEREO spacecraft are presented. Langmuir wave structure is studied using hodograms classified as one-, two-, or three-dimensional. Multi-dimensional Langmuir waves are both less-often observed than one-dimensional events and clustered in time. These observations show that a minority of Langmuir waves have electric fields transverse to the local magnetic field direction. We present a new explanation for this transverse structure based on an interpretation of Langmuir waves as eigenmodes of solar wind density cavities. These new observations are compared with previous theories for transverse wave structure and the eigenmode interpretation is found to be consistent with STEREO observations.
Received 31 July 2008; accepted 2 October 2008; published 27 December 2008.
Citation: (2008), Observations of three-dimensional Langmuir wave structure, J. Geophys. Res., 113, A12108, doi:10.1029/2008JA013656.
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