Discrete aurora as the direct result of an inferred high-altitude generating potential distribution

Details Discrete aurora as the direct result of an inferred high-altitude generating potential distribution Discrete aurora as the direct result of an inferred high-altitude generating potential distribution

Jan 1981

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1981jgr....86....1l&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 86, Jan. 1, 1981, p. 1-8.

Physics

110

Auroral Electrojets, Electric Potential, Electron Precipitation, Magnetospheric Electron Density, Electric Fields, Geomagnetism, High Altitude, Ionospheric Electron Density, Space Plasmas

Scientific paper

The possibility of accounting for small-scale precipitation regions associated with discrete auroras by discontinuities in the high-altitude magnetospheric electric field structure is examined. It is shown that variations in the density and thermal energy of the high-altitude electron plasma are capable of accounting for the width of the discrete aurora precipitation region, however the necessary values of these parameters have not been observed during rocket flights. Rocket observations of precipitating electrons and electric fields are used to derive the high-altitude potential distribution, which is then used to solve the current continuity equation for the ionospheric potential, in agreement with the measured potential. Results of the present analysis and that of Lyons (1980) for large-scale auroral regions are interpreted to imply that the scale size of the inverted V regions of auroral electron precipitation is a result of the current versus electric potential relations along auroral field lines and in the ionosphere.

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