Field-aligned currents and auroral acceleration by non-linear MHD waves

This paper examines the consequences of the assumption that substorm-associated growth of magnetosphere-ionosphere current systems is triggered by the incidence, on the ionosphere, of a large amplitude Alfvén wave generated in the distant magnetotail. It is pointed out that there is a large body of evidence suggesting that, in the acceleration region near 1 R_E, one is likely to find a major discontinuity in mass density. Following the approach of Cohen and Kulsrud (1974) who studied the steepening of large amplitude hydromagnetic waves into shocks, we demonstrate that the character of the background plasma and magnetic field in the auroral acceleration region near 1 R_E can be ideal for the generation of MHD shocks and that these shocks can lead to the acceleration of ions and electrons as reported by investigators using S3-3 satellite data.