Do magnetospheric shear Alfvén waves generate sufficient electron energy flux to power the aurora?

Details Do magnetospheric shear Alfvén waves generate sufficient electron energy flux to power the aurora? Do magnetospheric shear Alfvén waves generate sufficient electron energy flux to power the aurora?

Jul 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010jgra..11507224w&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 115, Issue A7, CiteID A07224

Physics

6

Magnetospheric Physics: Auroral Phenomena (2407), Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions (2431), Magnetospheric Physics: Numerical Modeling, Magnetospheric Physics: Plasma Waves And Instabilities (2471), Magnetospheric Physics: Energetic Particles: Precipitating

Scientific paper

Using a self-consistent drift-kinetic simulation code, we investigate whether electron acceleration owing to shear Alfvén waves in the plasma sheet boundary layer is sufficient to cause auroral brightening in the ionosphere. The free parameters used in the simulation code are guided by in situ observations of wave and plasma parameters in the magnetosphere at distances >4 RE from the Earth. For the perpendicular wavelength used in the study, which maps to ˜4 km at 110 km altitude, there is a clear amplitude threshold which determines whether magnetospheric shear Alfvén waves above the classical auroral acceleration region can excite sufficient electrons to create the aurora. Previous studies reported wave amplitudes that easily exceed this threshold; hence, the results reported in this paper demonstrate that auroral acceleration owing to shear Alfvén waves can occur in the magnetosphere at distances >4 RE from the Earth.

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