Why does the perpendicular electric field increase at the edge of auroral arcs?

Radar, rocket and satellite measurements often indicate that there is a strong increase and subsequent decrease in the perpendicular electric field when traversing one edge of an auroral arc. The analysis of rocket measurements, presented here, shows that above an auroral arc there is a small gradient in the electric field due to polarization effects in the ionosphere, but that the strong increase at the edge of the arc can only be explained if the field-aligned currents associated with the arc are taken into account.     

Bars — A dual bistatic auroral radar system for the study of electric fields in the Canadian sector of the auroral zone

One instrument of the Canadian Auroral Network for the Open Program Unified Study (CANOPUS) is a pulsed dual bistatic auroral radar system (BARS) for the mapping of ionospheric electric fields, using the STARE technique originated by R.A. Greenwald [14]. The Canadian system is presently in the specification and design phases, with the objective of being operational by mid-1984. This paper describes the geometry of the BARS system, the design considerations, and the planned data and control network.     

Atomic oxygen concentrations in the lower auroral thermosphere

Atomic oxygen concentrations derived from the nightglow components of O₂(b¹Σ_g⁺ ? X³Σ_g^?) (0-0) Atmospheric Band emission profiles obtained during two rocket-borne photometer measurements of aurora are presented. The peak atomic oxygen concentrations of 2–3 × 10¹¹ cm^?3 are in better agreement with those of the MSIS-83 model than the CIRA 1972 mean reference atmosphere, although the shapes of the two derived profiles differ considerably from that of MSIS-83. The derived concentrations do not contradict the suggestion made by some investigators that the atomic oxygen concentrations in the auroral zone are depleted relative to their mid-latitude values.     

Perspectives of auroral X-ray measurements in the 1980s

The measurement of auroral X-rays with balloon-borne instruments is an efficient means to study the behaviour of electrons with energies above about 30 keV in the magnetosphere during disturbed periods. Possibilities will be discussed to continue such measurements in the 1980's. It will be pointed out, what kind of investigations may be performed. Recently developed payloads will be described that can be used as a basis for further technical developments. Satellite projects scheduled for the 1980's will be presented that are suited for coordinated X-ray measurements.     

Reevaluation of thermosphere heating by auroral electrons

This paper presents a new calculation of neutral gas heating by precipitating auroral electrons. It is found that the heating rate of the neutral gas is significantly lower than previous determinations below 200 km altitude. The neutral gas heating arises from the many exothermic chemical reactions that take place from the ions and excited species created by the energetic electrons. The calculations show that less than half the energy initially deposited ends up heating the neutral gases. The rest is radiated or lost in the dissociation of O₂ because the O atoms do not recombine in the thermosphere. This paper also presents a new way of calculating the heating rate per ionization that can be used for efficient determination of the overall neutral gas heating for global thermosphere models. The heating rates are relatively insensitive to the neutral atmosphere when plotted against pressure rather than altitude coordinates. At high altitudes, the heating rates are sensitive to the thermal electron density and long-lived species. The calculations were performed with the Field Line Interhemispheric Plasma (FLIP) model using a 2-stream auroral electron precipitation model. The heating rate calculations in this paper differ from previous heating rate calculations in the treatment of backscattered electrons to produce better agreement with observed flux spectra. This paper shows that more realistic model auroral electron spectra can be obtained by reflecting the up going flux back to the ionosphere at the upper boundary of the model. In this case, the neutral gas heating rates are 20%–25% higher than when the backscattered flux escapes from the ionosphere.     

On high-altitude electric fields in the auroral downward current region and their coupling to ionospheric electric fields

The downward field-aligned current region plays an active role in magnetosphere–ionosphere coupling processes associated with aurora. A quasi-static electric field structure with a downward parallel electric field forms at altitudes between 800 km and 5000 km, accelerating ionospheric electrons upward, away from the auroral ionosphere. Other phenomena including energetic ion conics, electron solitary waves, low-frequency wave activity, and plasma density cavities occur in this region, which also acts as a source region for VLF saucers. Results are presented from high-altitude Cluster observations with particular emphasis on the characteristics and dynamics of quasi-static electric field structures. These, extending up to altitudes of at least 4–5 Earth radii, appear commonly as monopolar or bipolar electric fields. The former occur at sharp boundaries, such as the polar cap boundary whereas the bipolar fields occur at softer boundaries within the plasma sheet. The temporal evolution of quasi-static electric field structures, as captured by the pearls-on-a-string configuration of the Cluster spacecraft, indicates that the formation of electric field structures and of ionospheric plasma density cavities are closely coupled processes. A related feature of the downward current is a broadening of the current sheet with time, possibly related to the depletion process. Preliminary studies of the coupling of electric fields in the downward current region, show that small-scale structures are typically decoupled from the ionosphere, similar to what has been found for the upward current region. However, exceptions are also found where small-scale electric fields couple perfectly between the ionosphere and Cluster altitudes. Recent FAST results indicate that the degree of coupling differs between sheet-like and curved structures, and that it is typically partial. The electric field coupling further depends on the current–voltage relationship, which is highly non-linear in the downward current region, and still unrevealed, as to its specific form.     

Advances in auroral imaging from space

Space imaging of the aurora provides unique quantitative information on the instantaneous global distribution and pattern of the aurora - a direct result of particle acceleration and precipitation processes occurring throughout the magnetosphere. Techniques for imaging from space have usually involved systematically scanning a detector across the earth using some combination of satellite motion and spin, scanning mirrors, and/or electronic scanning. The recent advent of CCD image sensor arrays opens up possibilities for vastly improved sensitivity and resolution in satellite imagers, although scanning systems retain significant advantages in situations where scattered light is a problem and where narrow band optical interference filters are needed.A new type of imaging instrument being built in Canada for the Swedish Viking satellite will employ a two-dimensional CCD array detector which is fibre-optically coupled to a micro-channel plate intensifier. It will produce images of low light level auroral emissions at the rate of one image per spin of the satellite (20 seconds). The instrument operates in the vacuum ultraviolet and uses a fast inverse Cassegrain optical system. Charge is shifted in the CCD imaging array in synchronism with the moving image so that exposure times of approximately one second will be achieved.     

A decade of balloon observations of auroral x-rays

Balloon observations of bremsstrahlung x-rays carried out by The University of Calgary over the past decade deal with morphological studies of auroral electron precipitation. The program attempts to deal with the understanding of correlation between parent electrons and secondary x-rays, study of microbursts, East-West and North-South extent of electron precipitation, and precipitation during pulsating aurora. Although the overall program involves the use of both rocket and balloon-borne payloads, here we present only the results of the balloon experiments.     

Kappa distribution functions and the main properties of auroral particle acceleration

The problem of auroral particle acceleration is analyzed taking into account the filling of the magnetosphere by accelerated particles of ionospheric origin and the trapping of particles between the magnetic and electrostatic barriers. It is taken into account that kappa distributions describe experimentally measured distribution functions better than do maxwellians. The existence of conjugate field-aligned potential drops in the north and south hemispheres is suggested. Field-aligned potential drops are formed if the value of field-aligned current is higher than the threshold determined by the free gazodynamic flow of electrons along field lines. Results of experimental observations showing the possibility of field-aligned potential drop concentration in double layers are summarized. The theory of kinetic double layers is developed taking into account the nonmaxwellian forms of distribution functions. It is shown that the kinetic treatment and the existence of nonmaxwellian distributions lead to real changes in the criteria required for double-layer formation.     

Radar auroral observations and ionospheric electric fields

The ground-based systems STARE and SABRE utilize radar auroral phenomena to estimate ionospheric electric fields. Some of the assumptions underlying these systems have been tested and general agreement with expectations have been found. However, as the results have been analysed in detail, it has become clear that the error in the irregularity drift velocity can at times amount to 100 ms^?1. Direct comparisons with other E-field measurements, as well as assessments of the results of applications of the Stare data clearly demonstrate that the electric field, calculated on the basis of the irregularity drift velocity, is a useful estimate of the actual horizontal electric field in the ionosphere and is sufficiently accurate for a great variety of geophysical studies.     

Factors influencing the heating of the auroral electrojet by high power radio waves

Results are presented from recent ionospheric modification experiments in which the EISCAT UHF radar measured the E-region temperature and density response to high power RF heating above Tromsø. A variety of electrojet conditions were encountered during these experiments. In particular, the electron drift velocity varied considerably allowing the heating efficiency of the RF heater to be investigated as a function of electron flow velocity. These observations constitute the first direct investigation of electrojet temperature modifications by high power radio waves and provide a test of a recent theoretical model in which the combined effects of RF heating and of natural plasma turbulence associated with the Farley-Buneman instability have been considered.     

Morphology of high latitude auroral electron precipitations obtained by the Aureol-3 satellite

Latitudinal distribution of auroral electron precipitations was studied using the Aureol-3 satellite data. Analysis of 148 events in the morning, night, and evening sectors showed that structures of all types have a wide MLT distribution. However, during low geomagnetic activity the distribution of latitudinally asymmetric events is close to Iijima and Potemra's Region 1 and 2 current picture: the equatorward events prevail in the morning and postmidnight sectors, and the polarward ones — in the evening and premidnight. An increase in geomagnetic activity makes the MLT distribution of different types of events more uniform. This fact may indicate existence of the multi-layer structure of currents and consequently medium scale electric fields, in which the maximum currents considerably exceed the average values observed in the Region 1 and 2.     

A new class of intermediate thrust arcs in the restricted three-body problem

The Mayer’s variational problem of determining spacecraft optimal trajectories in the context of a classical restricted three-body problem is considered. Integrability of differential equations of a controllable motion in the non-central gravitational field represents well known and challenging task. It is shown that in the absence of sufficient number of first integrals, an explicit dependability of unknown integrals on certain variables can be used to explore the existence of previously unknown particular integrals and solutions of these equations utilizing Dokshevich’s method of analytical dynamics. A new class of extremal analytical solutions of the problem for intermediate thrust arcs is presented. An illustrative example of utilizing these solutions in minimizing the spacecraft characteristic velocity of a transfer from a specified initial position to some final position in the Earth-Moon system is discussed.     

Occurrence rate of SAR arcs during the 23rd solar activity cycle

The occurrence rate of SAR arcs during 1997–2007 has been analyzed based on the photometric observations at the Yakutsk meridian (Maimaga station, corrected geomagnetic coordinates: 57°N, 200°E). SAR arcs appeared in 114 cases (∼500 h) during ∼370 nights of observations (∼3170 h). The occurrence frequency of SAR arcs increases to 27% during the growth phase of solar activity and has a clearly defined maximum at a decline of cycle 23. The SAR arc registration probability corresponds to the variations in geomagnetic activity in this solar cycle. The dates, intervals of UT, and geomagnetic latitudes of SAR arc observations at the Yakutsk meridian are presented.     

Long-term changes in indices of geomagnetic activity at the auroral station Sodankylä

Here we compare the traditional analog measure of geomagnetic activity, Ak, with the more recent digital indices of IHV and Ah based on hourly mean data, and their derivatives at the auroral station Sodankylä. By this selection of indices we study the effects of (i) analog vs. digital technique, and (ii) full local-time vs. local night-time coverage on quantifying local geomagnetic activity. We find that all other indices are stronger than Ak during the low-activity cycles 15–16 suggesting an excess of very low scalings in Ak at this time. The full-day indices consistently depict stronger correlation with the interplanetary magnetic field strength, while the night-time indices have higher correlation with solar wind speed. The Ak index correlates better with the digital indices of full-day coverage than with any night-time index. However, Ak depicts somewhat higher activity levels than the digital full-day indices in the declining phase of the solar cycle, indicating that, due to their different sampling rates, the latter indices are less sensitive to high-frequency variations driven by the Alfvén waves in high-speed streams. On the other hand, the night-time indices have an even stronger response to solar wind speed than Ak. The results strongly indicate that at auroral latitudes, geomagnetic indices with different local time coverage reflect different current systems, which, by an appropriate choice of indices, allows studying the century-scale dynamics of these currents separately.     

Magnetospheric application of high-altitude long-duration balloon technology: Daylight auroral observations

Daylight auroral imaging is a proposed application of the NASA high-altitude long-duration balloon technology. This paper discusses the theoretical background of this application and test observations, for proof of the feasibility. It is demonstrated that nitrogen auroral emissions in the near-infrared band are detectable at altitudes of 35–40 km and above using a near-infrared InGaAs camera. The purpose of such observations is to identify auroral small-scale structures that are manifestations of auroral particle accelerations and the solar wind – magnetosphere – ionosphere interaction. Use of this new approach will enable studies of the dayside aurora, low-latitude aurora, and storm-time and substorm-time auroral conjugacy.