Measurements of collisionless spatial cyclotron damping rates and finite minimum wavelengths near resonance (0.7 ≤ ω/ωc ≤ 1.0) are presented for a right‐hand circularly polarized wave propagating in a magnetic beach. The magnetic beach is sufficiently weak so that a WKB approximation for the spatial variation of the wave electric field is valid. It is shown that the plasma and waves satisfy conditions for which the collisionless damping process is dominant. A technique is presented which uses the wave data to determine the plasma density and temperature by means of the theoretical hot plasma spatial dispersion relation for the whistler mode. The resulting plasma parameters agree consistently for both the measured wave numbers and damping rates as well as with those obtained from Langmuir probe data.

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© 1974 American Institute of Physics.
1974
American Institute of Physics
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