Field-aligned currents deduced from EISCAT radar observations and implications concerning the mechanism that produces region 2 currents

Details Field-aligned currents deduced from EISCAT radar observations and implications concerning the mechanism that produces region 2 currents Field-aligned currents deduced from EISCAT radar observations and implications concerning the mechanism that produces region 2 currents

Jun 1987

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987jgr....92.6000c&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 92, June 1, 1987, p. 6000-6012. Research supported by the Academy of Finl

Computer Science

Sound

18

Atmospheric Electricity, Eiscat Radar System (Europe), Field Aligned Currents, Ionospheric Currents, Radar Measurement, Current Density, Electric Potential, Electron Precipitation, Incoherent Scatter Radar, Ionospheric Sounding

Scientific paper

Large-scale field-aligned currents have been determined from electric field and conductivity measurements performed with the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) radar. The result, given for a quiet and stationary day, is globally consistent with the usual picture of the large-scale morphology of field-aligned currents involving region 1 and region 2 current systems. A comparison between the electric potential pattern (deduced from electric field measurements) and the field-aligned current pattern in region 2 has been performed. The results imply that the field-aligned current tends to be distributed in phase opposition, rather than phase quadrature, with the potential. This is found to be irreconcilable with the mechanism usually put forward as the generator of field-aligned currents in the medium and inner magnetosphere (namely, charge separation due to gradient drifts of energetic particles at the ring current inner edge). The loss of convected energetic electrons by precipitation due to pitch angle scattering produces azimuthal pressure gradients sufficiently pronounced that it may constitute the dominant mechanism for driving field-aligned currents in the medium and inner magnetosphere, thus accounting for the observed phase characteristics of region 2 currents.

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