Electrodynamics of the Westward Auroral Electrojet Driven by the Solar Wind Density Enhancement

Details Electrodynamics of the Westward Auroral Electrojet Driven by the Solar Wind Density Enhancement Electrodynamics of the Westward Auroral Electrojet Driven by the Solar Wind Density Enhancement

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsh11a0359s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SH11A-0359

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2134 Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, 2407 Auroral Ionosphere (2704), 2409 Current Systems (2721), 2411 Electric Fields (2712), 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

Previous studies have shown that the westward auroral electrojet can be enhanced by a solar wind density enhancement. The auroral electrojet is determined by both the electric field and the conductance in the ionosphere. However, which of these contributes more to the electrojet enhancement has not been studied. Using the auroral electrojet index, AL, and Polar Ultraviolet Imager (UVI) auroral images, we examine two events in which there was a solar wind density enhancement while other solar wind parameters were relatively constant. Two electrojet enhancements were found in each event. The first electrojet enhancement is likely to be related to an internally triggered substorm in which an auroral bulge appeared at premidnight. The second electrojet enhancement was found to be driven by the density enhancement. The auroral oval became wider in latitude and the auroral distribution became dispersed after the density enhancement arrived at the Earth. The total auroral power integrated over the entire nightside region, however, did not increase significantly in response to the density enhancement. This observation indicates that the westward auroral electrojet driven by the solar wind density is dominated by the electric field. This study is a part of continuing efforts towards the science goals for the US Living With a Star program.

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