Auroral particle acceleration by Alfvén waves and ionospheric feedback

Details Auroral particle acceleration by Alfvén waves and ionospheric feedback Auroral particle acceleration by Alfvén waves and ionospheric feedback

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsm21a..01l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SM21A-01

Physics

2704 Auroral Phenomena (2407), 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 7827 Kinetic And Mhd Theory, 7867 Wave/Particle Interactions

Scientific paper

Recent observations, particularly by Polar and FAST, have indicated that Alfvén waves can directly accelerate auroral electrons. A model for this interaction has been developed that can describe the linear modification of the Alfvén wave profile by the kinetic effects of electrons, including acceleration and heating of the electron population. While many of the heated electrons are accelerated upward into the magnetosphere by the mirror force, a significant fraction of the input Poynting flux due to Alfvén waves can be converted into precipitating electron energy flux. An important aspect of this particle precipitation is that the hot electrons do not arrive at the ionosphere in phase with the field-aligned current, which at ionospheric altitudes is largely carried by cold electrons. This phase shift has direct implications for models of ionospheric feedback that usually assume that the precipitating flux is in phase with the field-aligned current. The effects of quasi-static electric fields can be included in the model, which will introduce new particle populations such as the effects of secondary electrons of ionospheric origin that are reflected by the parallel potential drop. The possible role of Alfvén waves trapped in the ionospheric resonator in creating small-scale auroral structures through feedback and nonlinear interactions will be discussed.

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