Physics
Scientific paper
Feb 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994jatp...56..245k&link_type=abstract
Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics (ISSN 0021-9169), vol. 56, no. 2, p. 245-263
Physics
1
Auroral Zones, Convective Flow, Electric Fields, Field Aligned Currents, Flow Distribution, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Magnetohydrodynamic Flow, Polar Caps, Solar Wind, Earth Magnetosphere, Electrodynamics, Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling, Solar Terrestrial Interactions
Scientific paper
During the last two decades measurements of polar cap ionospheric electric fields and currents, field-aligned currents, and global auroral forms have been made from ground-based and space-based platforms. An attempt is made to unify these observations into a large-scale view of polar phenomena. In this view, plasma convection patterns and the corresponding electrodynamics in the polar region can consistently be ordered by the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The different patterns of the electric potential and of field-aligned currents depend on where the main interaction between the terrestrial and interplanetary field occurs, on the morning or evening side of the central polar cap, or on the dayside portion of the 'closed' cusp region, or on the nightside portion of the 'open' cusp region. One of the essential elements of this unified view is that it is possible to account for various convection patterns ranging from the four-cell pattern (during periods of strong northward IMF and B(sub y) is approximately 0, to the three-cell pattern (B(sub z) is greater than 0 and the absolute value of B(sub y) is much greater than 0), to the conventional two-cell pattern (B(sub z) is greater than 0) with its possible deformation into a convection throat near the dayside cusp (during southward IMF). We also discuss the way in which the complicated field-aligned current systems can consistently be accounted for in terms of these convection patterns.
Kamide Yohsuke
Troshichev Oleg A.
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