Helium in the Earth's foreshock: a global Vlasiator survey

The foreshock is a region of space in front of the Earth's bow shock, extending along the interplanetary magnetic field. It is permeated by ions and electrons reflected at the shock, low-frequency waves, and various plasma transients. The ion foreshock is dominated by a number of proton populations such as field-aligned beams, gyrating distributions and diffuse ions, as well as proton-excited waves. As the solar wind can contain a significant fraction of helium, it is of great interest to investigate how alpha-particles (He²⁺) are reflected into forming their own foreshock. We investigate the extent of the helium foreshock in relation to foreshock ultra-low frequency waves and protons using Vlasiator, a global hybrid-Vlasov simulation. We confirm a number of historical spacecraft observations at the foreshock regions associated with field-aligned beams, gyrating ion distributions, and specularly reflected particles, performing the first numerical global survey of the helium foreshock. We present wavelet analysis at multiple positions within the foreshock and evaluate the dynamics of gyrating ion populations in response to the transverse and compressive wave components. We also present Magnetosphere Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft crossings of the foreshock edge and compare Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) measurements of energetic ions with our simulation data, showing the variability of the foreshock edge suprathermal ion profiles.