VISIONS-2 Observations of Electron Dynamics and Alfvén Waves

Results from last year’s VISIONS-2 sounding rocket mission to investigate the physics of the cusp are presented and discussed. The focus is on the relationship of the highly-structured, field-aligned, dispersed electron fluxes and the concurrently-measured low frequency electric and magnetic fields, which are taken to be Alfvén waves. The discussion centers on the copious appearance of these phenomena within the VISIONS-2 measurements, and discusses the distinct characteristics of the electron bursts in the context of the waves. Featured are Poynting flux calculations (magnitude and direction) of the waves and a characterization of the wave polarization relative to the direction of the mean plasma flow. Energy analyses of the electrons and waves are used to elucidate their interrelationship, and time-of-flight analyses are used to constrain the interaction domain in the vertical direction.