Characterizing magnetospheric electrons from ALIS observations of discrete auroral arcs and quasi-stationary modeling of auroral acceleration

Details Characterizing magnetospheric electrons from ALIS observations of discrete auroral arcs and quasi-stationary modeling of auroral acceleration Characterizing magnetospheric electrons from ALIS observations of discrete auroral arcs and quasi-stationary modeling of auroral acceleration

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm21a1878l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM21A-1878

Physics

[2431] Ionosphere / Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions, [2455] Ionosphere / Particle Precipitation, [2704] Magnetospheric Physics / Auroral Phenomena, [2736] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

From a series of images obtained simultaneously with the CCD cameras of the ALIS (Auroral Large Imaging System) network located in Scandinavia, three-dimensional (3D) large-scale structures of discrete auroral arcs can be retrieved in several filters with tomography-like techniques. In particular, the 3D reconstructed volume emission rates at 4278 Å can be used to derive the energy spectra of precipitating magnetospheric electrons in 2D, along and across the arc, with a spatial resolution of approximately 3 km. These spectra directly provide E0, the characteristic energy and ɛm, the total flux energy of precipitating electrons. The latter can be used together with a kinetic modelling of adiabatic motion of particles (Lundin & Sandahl, 1978) and assuming a Maxwellian distribution for magnetospheric electrons, to derive ΔΦ, the field-aligned potential difference between the ionosphere and magnetosphere. The next step is to use a quasi-static magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling model based on the current continuity in the ionosphere (Echim et al, 2007) and the model of tangential discontinuity generators (Roth et al 1993) to determine densities (ne) and temperatures (Te) of the magnetospheric electrons. The model is run iteratively for typical values of magnetospheric ne and Te that are adjusted until ΔΦ provided by the model is in agreement with the one determined from ALIS observations. This technique allows to obtain information about the properties of the generator of the auroral arc, from ground-based observations and quasi-stationary modeling. Future conjugated observations between ALIS and a spacecraft crossing the same magnetic field lines above the acceleration region could be used to validate this novel technique.

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