Quasilinear heating of electrons in the earth's plasmasphere

In the framework of a quasilinear theory we examine the interaction between thermal electrons and ion-cyclotron waves (ICW) in the outer plasmasphere of the earth. For this type of wave-particle interaction, a simplification of the quasilinear diffusion integral in a magneto-active plasma under plasmaspheric conditions is given. Under the assumption of a Maxwellian distribution of electrons we have calculated the collision frequency and the heating source as the electrons are scattered by ICW. The obtained values of intrinsic parameters of the outer plasmasphere may exceed greatly, accordingly, the Coulomb frequency of collisions and the heating source due to suprathermal electrons. ICW-heating causes the ionosphereward thermal flux to increase, and this must lead to an increase in electron temperature in lower-lying plasmaspheric regions and in the subauroral ionosphere. A quantitative estimation of the electron temperature for the hot zone, made in this paper, is consistent with available experimental data.