Measurements of field-aligned currents in a multiple auroral arc system

Details Measurements of field-aligned currents in a multiple auroral arc system Measurements of field-aligned currents in a multiple auroral arc system

Jan 1976

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1976jgr....81..116s&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 81, Jan. 1, 1976, p. 116-122.

Computer Science

Sound

4

Auroral Arcs, Auroral Electrojets, Current Sheets, Field Aligned Currents, Magnetic Field Configurations, Rocket Sounding, Atmospheric Models, Birkeland Currents, Cesium Vapor, Electron Energy, Ionospheric Currents, Magnetometers, Spherical Harmonics

Scientific paper

A rocket-borne experiment to study the currents associated with a system of multiple auroral arcs was conducted at Poker Flat, Alaska, at 1122 UT on Feb. 2, 1972. The magnetic field in the vicinity of the auroral system was measured with a cesium vector magnetometer. Possible configurations were inferred by constructing model current systems that reproduced the magnetic field variations measured along the flight path. The data are interpreted in terms of a model current system consisting of two eastward electrojets and one westward electrojet and three pairs of oppositely directed Birkeland sheet currents, all lying in a plane approximately parallel to the auroral arcs. Sheet thicknesses ranged from 20 to 60 km and current densities from 10 to 45 microampere/sq m; the electrojet currents ranged from 1000 to 2000 A. A possible alternate model consisted of four pairs of sheets whose thicknesses range from 10 to 40 km with current densities from 10 to 90 microampere/sq m. There was quite good agreement between the locations of the visual arcs and the upward current sheets. The overall current configuration is discussed in view of the theoretical models constructed by Atkinson and Sato and Holzer and of other observations.

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