Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsa23a1458k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SA23A-1458
Other
[0310] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Airglow And Aurora, [0358] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Thermosphere: Energy Deposition, [2407] Ionosphere / Auroral Ionosphere, [2427] Ionosphere / Ionosphere/Atmosphere Interactions
Scientific paper
We report the first observations of E-region neutral wind fields and their interaction with auroral arcs at meso-scale spatial resolution during geomagnetically quiet conditions at Mawson, Antarctica. This was achieved by using a scanning Doppler imager, which can observe thermospheric neutral line-of-sight winds and temperatures simultaneously over a wide field of view. In two cases, the background E-region wind field was perpendicular to an auroral arc, which when it appeared caused the wind direction within ~50 km of the arc to rotate parallel along the arc, reverting to the background flow direction when the arc disappeared. This was observed under both westward and eastward ion convection. The wind rotations occurred within 7-16 min. In another case, as an auroral arc propagated from the horizon toward the local zenith, the background E-region wind field became significantly weaker but remained unaffected where the arc had not passed through. We demonstrate through modelling that these effects cannot be explained by height changes in the emission layer. The most likely explanation seems to be greatly enhanced ion drag associated with the increased plasma density and localised ionospheric electric field associated with auroral arcs. In all cases, the F-region neutral wind appeared only slightly affected by the auroral arc, although its presence is clear in the data.
Anderson Christian
Carter Brandon
Conde M. G.
Davies Trevor
Dyson Peter L.
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