A Simulation Study of the Plasma Wave Enhancements in the Earth’s Equatorial Plasmasphere

In the equatorial plasmasphere, plasma waves are frequently observed. To improve our understanding of the mechanism generating plasma waves from instabilities, a comparison of observations, linear growth-rate calculations, and simulation results is presented. To start the numerical experiments from realistic initial plasma conditions, we use the initial parameters inferred from observational data obtained around the plasma-wave generation region by the Akebono satellite. The linear growth rates of waves of different modes are calculated under resonance conditions, and compared with simulation results and observations. By employing numerical experiments by a particle code, we first show that upper hybrid-, Z-, and whistler-mode waves are excited through instabilities driven by a ring-type velocity distribution. The simulation results suggest a possibility that energetic electrons with energies of some tens of keV confined around the geomagnetic equator are responsible for the observed enhancements of Z- and whistler-mode waves. While the comparison between linear growth-rate calculations and observations shows the different tendency of wave amplitude of Z-mode and whistler-mode waves, the wave amplitude of these wave modes in the simulation results is consistent with the observation.     

Recent trends in regional air temperature and precipitation and links to global climate change in the Maharlo watershed,Southwestern Iran

Trends in air temperature and precipitation data are investigated for linkages to global warming and climate change. After checking for serial correlation with trend-free pre-whitening procedure, the Mann–Kendall test is used to detect monotonic trends and the Mann–Whitney test is used for trend step change. The case study is Maharlo watershed, Southwestern Iran, representing a semi-arid environment. Data are for the 1951–2011 period, from four temperature sites and seven precipitation sites. A homogeneity test investigates regional similarity of the time series data. The results include mean annual, mean annual maximum and minimum and seasonal analysis of air temperature and precipitation data. Mean annual temperature results indicate an increasing trend, while a non-significant trend in precipitation is observed in all the stations. Furthermore, significant phase change was detected in mean annual air temperature trend of Shiraz station in 1977, indicating decreasing trend during 1951–1976 and increasing trend during 1977–2011. The annual precipitation analysis for Shiraz shows a non-significant decrease during 1951–1976 and 1977–2011. The result of homogeneity test reveals that the studied stations form one homogeneous region. While air temperature trends appear as regional linkage to global warming/global climate change, more definite outcome requires analysis of longer time series data on precipitation and air temperature.