Dynamics of the magnetospheric cyclotron ELF/VLF maser in the backward-wave-oscillator regime. II. The influence of the magnetic-field inhomogeneity

We study the influence of the magnetic-field inhomogeneity on the nonlinear dynamics of the absolute instability of whistler-mode waves in the Earth’s magnetosphere in the presence of a step-like deformation in the distribution function of energetic electrons. Development of this instability, implying the transition of the magnetospheric cyclotron maser to the regime of a backward-wave oscillator (BWO), was proposed earlier as a generation mechanism of magnetospheric chorus emissions. We analyze the results of numerical simulations of the simplified nonlinear equations describing the magnetospheric-BWO dynamics in the case of low efficiency of wave-particle interactions. We found that the case of an inhomogeneous magnetic field where the system length is much greater than the length characterizing the linear stage of the BWO regime has important specific features compared with the case of a homogeneous medium. The main feature of the nonlinear wave dynamics in the magnetospheric BWO in an inhomogeneous magnetic field consists in the fact that for a sufficiently large excess over the generation threshold, a sequence of separate wave packets, i.e., discrete elements, is formed. The frequency within each packet varies in time, and these discrete elements are close in their properties to the chorus elements observed in the magnetosphere. The results of calculations confirm the quantitative estimates of parameters of chorus emissions, which were performed earlier on the basis of the BWO model.