Global distribution of wave amplitudes and wave normal angles of chorus waves using THEMIS wave observations

1 The global distribution of chorus wave amplitudes and their wave normal angles is investigated using high-resolution wave spectra and waveform data from THEMIS for lower-band and upper-band chorus separately. Statistical results show that large amplitude chorus (>300 pT) occurs predominantly from premidnight to postdawn and is preferentially observed at lower L shells (50 pT) tend to have wave normal angles of <20° and their wave normal angles become even smaller with increasing wave amplitudes. For modest waves, the wave normal angles are distributed over a broad range with a major peak at <20° and a secondary peak at 60°–80°. Wave normal angles of lower-band chorus are generally smaller on the dayside than on the nightside possibly due to the more uniform and more compressed magnetic field configuration on the dayside. Lower-band chorus becomes more oblique with increasing latitude on the dayside, whereas on the nightside the probability of observing oblique chorus decreases at higher latitudes. Compared to lower-band chorus, the properties of upper-band chorus are somewhat different. Upper-band chorus is considerably weaker in magnetic wave amplitudes, shows tighter confinement to the magnetic equator (<10°), and occurs at smaller L shells (<8). Furthermore, wave normal angles of upper-band chorus are generally larger than those of lower-band chorus, but the occurrence rate still peaks at wave normal angles of <20°, particularly for strong upper-band chorus.