RFs can propagate from the magnetotail to Earth over a long distance more than 10 R
E together with BBFs behind them (Runov et al. 2009; Cao et al. 2010). Studies have suggested that RFs are crucial regions for particle acceleration, pitch-angle evolution, wave–particle interactions, and electromagnetic energy conversion during their Earthward propagation. For instance, rapid increases in energy fluxes of electrons and ions from tens to hundreds of keV are a typical feature of RF events (Khotyaintsev et al. 2011; Liu et al. 2013, 2018c, 2021a, 2022b; Zhou et al. 2018; Liu & Fu 2019; Gabrielse et al. 2021), pitch-angle distribution of suprathermal electrons can evolve dramatically around RFs (Runov et al. 2013; Liu et al. 2020), strong particle and wave activity can occur in the vicinity of RFs (Ono et al. 2009; Zhou et al. 2009, 2014; Fu et al. 2014; Breuillard et al. 2016; Greco et al. 2017; Yang et al. 2017), and RFs are associated with energy conversion from electromagnetic fields to particles (Sitnov et al. 2009; Huang et al. 2015; Khotyaintsev et al. 2017; Liu et al. 2018a, 2022a). The energetic plasma in the vicinity of RFs plays a key role in connecting the magnetotail with the inner magnetosphere because they carry a large amount of energy and can be injected into the inner magnetosphere to affect the ring current and radiation belt (Gabrielse et al. 2012; Duan et al. 2014; Turner et al. 2014). Possible mechanisms responsible for the energization of particles around RFs have been widely investigated based on both spacecraft observations and numerical simulations during the past decade. The strong convection electric field induced by the strong magnetic field gradient of RFs provides significant adiabatic acceleration of the ambient particles (Birn et al. 2004, 2013, 2015; Gabrielse et al. 2012, 2014, 2016; Ganushkina et al. 2013; Liu et al. 2016; Turner et al. 2016). Nonadiabatic effects, caused by particle reflection ahead of the RFs (Zhou et al. 2018), resonance with RFs (Ukhorskiy et al. 2013, 2017), and scattering by wave emissions (Zhou et al. 2009; Greco et al. 2017), are also significant for particle energization. These above studies usually assumed that the RF surface has a planar boundary at a typical thickness comparable to the ion gyroradius and below (Nakamura et al. 2002; Sergeev et al. 2009; Zhou et al. 2009; Schmid et al. 2011; Liu et al. 2013; Vapirev et al. 2013). Divin et al. (2015b) revealed that the RF surface is unstable to instabilities ranging from electron scales to ion scales. Simulation studies found that RFs can be unstable to interchange instability and that finger-like structures on ion–electron hybrid scales can develop at the RF (Vapirev et al. 2013). Such finger-like structures are found to play a role in modulating the electron acceleration process (Wu et al. 2018). Bai et al. (2022) also reported significant ion trapping acceleration at the RF with ion-scale ripples. Unlike these surface structures with ion or ion–electron hybrid scales, Liu et al. (2018b) recently reported that the RF layer has electron-scale density gradients, currents, and electric fields, based on the MMS mission, which consists of four spacecraft separated by 30 km. Such electron-scale ripple structure can be generated by lower hybrid drift instability (Divin et al. 2015b; Pan et al. 2018). Liu et al. (2021c) presented a detailed investigation of energy flux densities at two RFs with/without the electron-scale surface ripples and indicated that surface ripples may play an important role in the particle dynamics. But how such electron-scale RF structure impacts the electron energization and transport still remains unknown. In this paper, with the aid of observation-based test-particle simulation, we aim to investigate in detail the effect of the front surface ripples on the local electron dynamics.
Citation: Gabrielse et al. 2012
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Citation: Gabrielse et al. 2012
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Citation: Liu et al.; 2022a
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