Possible evidence for partial demagnetization of electrons in the auroral E-region plasma during electron gas heating

A previous study, based on incoherent and coherent radar measurements, suggested that during auroral E-region electron heating conditions, the electron flow in the auroral electrojet undergoes a systematic counterclockwise rotation of several degrees relative to the E×B direction. The observational evidence is re-examined here in the light of theoretical predictions concerning E-region electron demagnetization caused by enhanced anomalous cross-field diffusion during strongly-driven Farley-Buneman instability. It is shown that the observations are in good agreement with this theory. This apparently endorses the concept of wave-induced diffusion and anomalous electron collision frequency, and consequently electron demagnetization, under circumstances of strong heating of the electron gas in the auroral electrojet plasma. We recognize, however, that the evidence for electron demagnetization presented in this report cannot be regarded as definitive because it is based on a limited set of data. More experimental research in this direction is thus needed.     

Non-magnetic aspect sensitive auroral echoes from the lower E region observed at 50 MHz

Backscatter from E-region irregularities was observed at aspect angles close to 90° (almost parallel to the direction of the magnetic field) using the ALOMAR SOUSY radar at Andoya/Norway. Strong electric fields and increased E-region electron temperatures simultaneously measured with the incoherent scatter facility EISCAT proved that the Farley-Buneman plasma instability was excited. In addition, strong particle precipitation was present as inferred from EISCAT electron densities indicating that the gradient drift instability may have been active, too. Backscatter at such large aspect angles was not expected and has not been observed before. The characteristics of the observed echoes, however, are in many aspects completely different from usual auroral radar results: the Doppler velocities are only of the order of 10 m/s, the half-width of the spectra is around 5 m/s, the echoes originate at altitudes well below 100 km, and they seem to be not aspect-sensitive with respect to the magnetic field direction. We, therefore, conclude that the corresponding irregularities are not caused by the mentioned instabilities and that other mechanism have to be invoked.     

New techniques for auroral irregularity studies with COSCAT

The COSCAT system enables the detection of E-region auroral backscatter with the EISCAT remote receivers at magnetic aspect angles close to 90°. This is achieved by utilising a low-power transmitter stationed in Oulu, Finland. Many important observations of E-region irregularities have been achieved with this simple experiment. Recent studies have attempted to push the COSCAT system to its experimental limits. Firstly, the CW signal has been phase-modulated with 13-bit Barker codes with baud lengths of 40, 70 and 100 s. Interpretation of the received power allows the spatial distribution of the auroral scatterers to be determined. The second advance is in the use of a sophisticated correlator program which allows data to be buffered within the correlator at very high time resolution. This enables the coherent backscatter power to be sampled every 12.5 ms and the full auto-correlation function to be measured every 100 ms. These measurements allow the COSCAT system to be employed for the first time in an investigation of the growth and decay of the auroral irregularities.     

亚暴期间极光电集流带的变化

极光活动加剧和极光电集流增强是磁层-电离层能量耦合的两种重要表现形式,它们同为磁层带电粒子向电离层沉降的结果,但是变化规律却非常不同.本文用地基磁场资料,反演极区等效电流体系,研究地磁平静期和扰动期极光电集流带的运动特点.研究表明,Harang间断把极光电集流带分为两段：下午—黄昏段的东向电集流带较弱,而晨侧和子夜—凌晨段的西向电集流带较强.在亚暴膨胀相,随着AE指数增大,整个极光卵向赤道扩展,而极光电集流带却表现出分段差异的特点：下午—黄昏东向电集流带向低纬移动,晨侧西向电集流带也向赤道移动,而子夜—凌晨西向电集流带则向极移动.电动力学分析表明,在不同地方时段,控制电流的主要因素不同,因而,电流及其磁扰有不同的特点：下午—黄昏东向电集流和晨侧西向电集流组成了DP2电流体系,主要受控于磁层对流电场,反映了“驱动过程”的行为;而子夜—凌晨西向电集流是DP1电流体系的基本部分,主要受控于电导率,反映了“卸载过程”的特点.     

Spatial structure of auroral day-time ionospheric electron density irregularities generated by a powerful HF-wave

We describe an experiment in satellite radio-wave probing of the ionosphere, modified by powerful waves from the HF heating facility at Tromsø (Norway) in May 1995. Amplitude scintillations and variations of the phase of VHF signals from Russian navigational satellites passing over the heated region were observed. We show that both large-scale electron density irregularities (several tens of kilometers in size) and small-scale ones (from hundreds of meters to kilometers) can be generated by the HF radiation. Maximum effects caused by small-scale irregularities detected in the satellite signals are observed in the directions sector approximately parallel to the geomagnetic field lines although large-scale structures can be detected within a much larger area. The properties of small-scale irregularities (electron density fluctuations) are investigated by applying a statistical analysis and by studying experimental and model mean values of the logarithm of the relative amplitude of the signal. The results indicate that satellite radio probing can be a supporting diagnostic technique for ionospheric heating and add valuable information to studies of effects produced by HF modification.     

Nonlinear wave structures in collisional plasma of auroral E-region ionosphere

Studies of the auroral plasma with small-scale inhomogenieties producing the VHF-radar reflections (radar aurora) when observed in conditions of the saturated Farley-Buneman instability within the auroral E region, show strong nonlinear interactions and density fluctuations of 5–15%. Such nonlinearity and high fluctation amplitudes are inconsistent with the limitations of the weak turbulence theory, and thus a theory for arbitrary amplitudes is needed. To this end, a nonlinear theory is described for electrostatic MHD moving plasma structures of arbitrary amplitude for conditions throughout the altitude range of the collisional auroral E region. The equations are derived, from electron and ion motion selfconsistent with the electric field, for the general case of the one-dimensional problem. They take into account nonlinearity, electron and ion inertia, diffusion, deviation from quasi-neutrality, and dynamical ion viscosity. The importance of the ion viscosity for dispersion is stressed, while deviation from the quasi-neutrality can be important only at rather low plasma densities, not typical for the auroral E region. In a small amplitude limit these equations have classical nonlinear solutions of the type of electrostatic shock wave or of knoidal waves. In a particular case these knoidal waves degrade to a dissipative soliton. A two-dimensional case of a quasi-neutral plasma is considered in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field by way of the Poisson brackets, but neglecting the nonlinearity and ion inertia. It is shown that in these conditions an effective saturation can be achieved at the stationary turbulence level of order of 10%.     

The generation of non aspect sensitive plasma density irregularities by field aligned drifts in the lower ionosphere

A theory of the generation of plasma density irregularities with virtually no aspect sensitivity, in the lower ionosphere at high latitudes, by electron drifts aligned with the geomagnetic field, is presented. The theory is developed through fluid equations in which the destabilising mechanism involves positive feedback from electron collisional heating. When field aligned electron drift speeds exceed a few km s^–1, this effect destabilises waves with wavelengths in excess of a few tens of metres in the lower E-region, where collisional effects are sufficiently large. Furthermore, the threshold conditions are almost independent of the wave propagation direction and the unstable waves propagate at speeds well below the ion acoustic speed. The role that this new instability may play in recent radar backscatter observations of short scale irregularities propagating in directions close to that of the geomagnetic field, in the lower E-region is also considered.     

Intermittency of riometer auroral absorption observed at South Pole

Auroral radio-wave absorption values measured at South Pole for 3 years using a riometer are analyzed in order to test whether they show evidence of intermittency. The properties of the parameters of the probability density functions determined for several magnetic local time sectors are found to be significantly different. The probability density functions for the pre-midnight sector show the typical shape associated to intermittency. No results are given for the afternoon sector because few auroral absorption events meet the selection criteria to give statistically significant results. It is suggested that if the precipitating particle population responsible for the riometer auroral absorption shared the intermittency features of the absorption then the present results would allow the study of the properties of the induction component of magnetospheric turbulence.     

Simultaneous observations at different altitudes of ionospheric backscatter in the eastward electrojet

A common feature of evening near-range ionospheric backscatter in the CUTLASS Iceland radar field of view is two parallel, approximately L-shell-aligned regions of westward flow which are attributed to irregularities in the auroral eastward electrojet region of the ionosphere. These backscatter channels are separated by approximately 100–200 km in range. The orientation of the CUTLASS Iceland radar beams and the zonally aligned nature of the flow allows an approximate determination of flow angle to be made without the necessity of bistatic measurements. The two flow channels have different azimuthal variations in flow velocity and spectral width. The nearer of the two regions has two distinct spectral signatures. The eastern beams detect spectra with velocities which saturate at or near the ion-acoustic speed, and have low spectral widths (less than 100ms^–1), while the western beams detect lower velocities and higher spectral widths (above 200ms^–1). The more distant of the two channels has only one spectral signature with velocities above the ionacoustic speed and high spectral widths. The spectral characteristics of the backscatter are consistent with E-region scatter in the nearer channel and upper-E-region or F-region scatter in the further channel. Temporal variations in the characteristics of both channels support current theories of E-region turbulent heating and previous observations of velocity-dependent backscatter cross-section. In future, observations of this nature will provide a powerful tool for the investigation of simultaneous E- and F-region irregularity generation under similar (nearly co-located or magnetically conjugate) electric field conditions.     

Ionospheric response to variable electric fields in small-scale auroral structures

High time and space resolution optical and radar measurements have revealed the influence of electric fields on E-region electron density profiles in small-scale auroral structures. Large electric fields are present adjacent to auroral filaments produced by monoenergetic electron fluxes. The ionisation profiles measured within and beside the auroral filaments show the effects of plasma convection due to electric fields as well as the consequences of the response time to large and dynamic fluxes of energetic electrons. Without high-resolution optical measurements, the interpretation of the radar data is limited.     

Quantitative analysis of the relationship between polar ionospheric currents and auroral electrojet indices

Magnetic storms and substorms are principalprocesses of energy transition from the solar wind intothe magnetosphere-ionosphere system and dissipationin the system. They are also important events whichthe space physics study and space weather predictionhave been focused on. Magnetic storms are describedby means of the magnetic index Dst, which is calcu-lated using the magnetic disturbances of horizontalcomponent recorded at 5 low-latitudinal stations, rep-resenting approximately the symmetric r…     

About the relationship between auroral electrojets and ring currents

The relationship between the storm-time ring current and the auroral electrojets is investigated using IMAGE magnetometer data, D_St and H-SYM, and solar wind data. Statistical results as well as the investigation of single events show that the auroral electrojets occur also during nonstorm conditions without storm-time ring current development and even during the storm recovery phase of increasing D_St. A close correlation between electrojet intensity and ring current intensity was not found. Though the eastward electrojet moves equatorward during the storm main phase there is no unequivocal relationship between the movement of the westward electrojet and the ring current development. All these results suggest that the auroral electrojets and the ring current develop more or less independently of each other.     

On recent developments in E-region irregularity simulationsand a summary of related theory

Theoretical and simulation approaches to E-region irregularities (gradient drift and Farley-Buneman instabilities) are reviewed, and an account is given of some relevant observations. A new hybrid linear dispersion relation is also derived and presented. The most important problem that cannot be explained by more straightforward theories is the saturation of the phase velocity to the ion acoustic speed (C_s saturation). This phenomenon is well-known from equatorial electrojet radar observations. Recent particle simulations have yielded an interesting new explanation for the (C_s saturation, which has been named flow angle stabilization: the phase velocity is not actually (C_s saturated, but the flow angle distribution of the spatial power spectrum is highly asymmetric. The asymmetry is such that the most intense waves propagate at the k⋅E < 0 edge of the linearly unstable sector, and thus the phase velocity of the most intense waves is close to (C_s. Depending on the level of larger scale turbulence, the radar observes varying degrees of (C_s saturation. If the larger scale turbulence level is high (equatorial electrojet case), the local flow angle fluctuates, and there are always subregions within the scattering volume with local flow angles favorable for the detection of the most intense waves. Under these conditions, the spectra show (C_s saturation. If the larger scale turbulence level is lower, there will not always be enough mixing of the flow angle for even the most intense waves to be observed. In these cases, the mean Doppler shift will be proportional to the electric fied, i.e. it will obey the linear theory.     

Alfvén wave coupling in the auroral current circuit

Auroral phenomena are controlled by the geomagnetic field.Since the terrestrial field lines connect the auroral oval to the equatorial region at large distances, the collisionless plasma in this remote space environment can act as a power supply for the high-latitude upper atmosphere where auroral emissions take place. The coupling process is intimately linked to currents which flow across the local magnetic field direction both in the equatorial part and at the atmospheric end of the auroral field lines. These two auroral key regions are connected through currents flowing along the terrestrial field lines, thereby completing the auroral current circuit. Such field-aligned currents are carried by Alfvén waves, that is, magnetohydrodynamic shear waves, which are thus a means to exchange momentum and energybetween rather remote parts of the geomagnetically controlledspace environment. Auroral dynamics is further affected by a third key region in the auroral current circuit, namely the auroral acceleration region, where parallel electric fields accelerate particle to keV energies. This review focuses on key region coupling through Alfvén waves. Continuity requirements for currents and electric fields provide a convenient means to describe the interaction of Alfvén waves with different plasma regimes. Basic coupling aspects can be demonstrated with the help of a simplified model. Inhomogeneities and nonlinear feedback can lead to resonance effects and instabilities.     

Numerical simulation of the mutual conversion of ordinary and extraordinary waves in a magnetised plasma by artificial ionospheric turbulence

Some effects of normal mode coupling in weakly anisotropic inhomogeneous plasma are analysed on the basis of the numerical solution of transfer equations for the Stokes parameters. The numerical analysis of normal mode conversion on a set of isolated irregularities demonstrates the possibility of an effective polarisation transformation on such structures. It is shown that by the appropriate selection of discrete irregularities of the external magnetic field direction or plasma electron concentration resulting in radio-wave refraction, one can control electromagnetic radiation polarisation characteristics. Analytical expressions for mean Stokes parameters have been obtained for the rare isolated irregularities. The opportunity for the simulation of mutual wave conversion processes in the ionospheric heating experiments is discussed.     

Probing discrete auroral arcs by ionospheric tomography

Optical observations of 557.7 nm and 630.0 nm emissions from discrete auroral arcs in the post-noon sector have been related to localised field-aligned enhancements in the spatial distribution of E- and F-layer electron density respectively seen in images reconstructed by ionospheric tomography. Results from two case studies are presented in which meridian scanning photometer and all-sky camera observations on Svalbard have been compared to electron-density structures found by tomographic inversion of measurements made by reception of radio signals at a chain of four stations at high latitude. The F-layer features are long-lived and show exact correspondence to the red-line emissions. Transient arcs in green-line intensity result in E-region structures that are resolved in one case, but not in another where the dynamic auroral forms are separated by less than one degree of latitude. The signature of an inverted-V precipitation event is clearly evident in one example.     

Features of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pc</Emphasis>5 pulsations in the geomagnetic field,auroral luminosity,and Riometer absorption

Simultaneous morning Pc5 pulsations (f ~ 3–5 mHz) in the geomagnetic field, aurora intensities (in the 557.7 and 630.0 nm oxygen emissions and the 471.0 nm nitrogen emission), and riometer absorption, were studied based on the CARISMA, CANMOS, and NORSTAR network data for the event of January 1, 2000. According to the GOES-8 satellite observations, these Pc5 geomagnetic pulsations are observed as incompressible Alfvén waves with toroidal polarization in the magnetosphere. Although the Pc5 pulsation frequencies in auroras, the geomagnetic field, and riometer absorption are close to one another, stable phase relationships are not observed between them. Far from all trains of geomagnetic Pc5 pulsations are accompanied by corresponding auroral pulsations; consequently, geomagnetic pulsations are primary with respect to auroral pulsations. Both geomagnetic and auroral pulsations propagate poleward, and the frequency decreases with increasing geomagnetic latitude. When auroral Pc5 pulsations appear, the ratio of the 557.7/630.0 nm emission intensity sharply increases, which indicates that auroral pulsations result from not simply modulated particle precipitation but also an additional periodic acceleration of auroral electrons by the wave field. A high correlation is not observed between Pc5 pulsations in auroras and the riometer absorption, which indicates that these pulsations have a common source but different generation mechanisms. Auroral luminosity modulation is supposedly related to the interaction between Alfvén waves and the region with the field-aligned potential drop above the auroral ionosphere, and riometer absorption modulation is caused by the scattering of energetic electrons by VLF noise pulsations.     

The evidence for auroral effects on atmospheric electricity

Summary The possibility of atmospheric electrical effects due to the aurora has been considered by investigators since 1875. An unsatisfactory theoretical basis for an explanation of observed effects and the measurements of only a few of the related parameters for short periods of time has led to uncertainty in the matter. Nevertheless, since the IGY²), new discoveries related to the aurora portray an unusual complexity, and a wide range of energy input. When considered with recent discussions on atmospheric electrification some interesting interpretations of the observed effects are suggested. On the ground, large negative excursions of the atmospheric electric field (E) during fair weather, and above 100 mb³) peculiar increases in negative ion densities and variations in air-earth current density (I) all appear to be related to auroral activity. A difference in (I) measured simultaneously at geomagnetic latitudes 55° and 68°N which is greater than what one would expect from a difference in conductivity due to cosmic rays may also be due to the aurora. Several models of the observed effects will be considered: (1) the high influx of negative space charge, i.e. a precipitation of around 10¹⁴ elementary charges m^–2 s^–1; (2) the auroral bremsstrahlung flux acts as an atmospheric current generator; (3) plasma instability in the auroral electrojet; (4) a combination of (2) and (3). The infrequent observation of the auroral effects on atmospheric electricity is probably due to limitations in detecting an extreme local fluctuation in such a large-scale complex phenomenon.     

Substorm fields in and near the auroral zone

During the last few years, the study of both temporal and spatial variations of substorm fields has rapidly expanded, mainly because of the relationships which exist between polar magnetic substorms and magnetospheric phenomena. Also during these years, proposed current systems believed to be responsible for substorm variations have evolved into complex three-dimensional systems with field-aligned and magnetospheric currents coupled to the eastward and westward electrojets. Recent model studies show that substorm variations in and near the auroral zone can easily be modelled using both two and three-dimensional current systems. In these studies, induction effects were simulated by assuming the Earth to be infinitely conducting at some depth below the surface.The use of magnetometers distributed along magnetic meridians has resulted in a better understanding of the complex current patterns making up the electrojets. For example, during the expansive phase of substorms, the westward and poleward progression of the overall westward electrojet was discovered to take place through the sequential development of a series of westward electrojets.     

Generation of auroral kilometric radiation in inhomogeneous magnetospheric plasma

The generation of auroral kilometric radiation in a narrow 3D plasma cavity, in which a weakly relativistic electron flow is propagated along the magnetic field against a low-density cold background plasma, is studied. The time dynamics of the propagation and intensification of waves are analyzed using geometric optics equations. The waves have different wave vector components and start from the cavity center at an altitude of about the Earth’s radius at plasma parameters typical for the auroral zone at this altitude. It is shown that the global inhomogeneity of the Earth’s magnetic field is of key importance in shaping the auroral kilometric radiation spectra.