Sub-oval proton aurora spots: Mapping relatively to the plasmapause
(2013) Journal of Atmospheric and Solar - Terrestrial Physics — Vol. 99, p. 61-66 (2013)
Files
Sub-ovalprotonauroraspotsMappingrelativelytotheplasmapause.pdf
Restricted Access - Adobe PDF
- 2.03 MB
Details
- Authors
Pierrard, Viviane 
- Abstract
- Sub-ovalprotonaurorasdiscoveredbytheIMAGEspacecraftcorrelatewithEMICwaves(geomagnetic pulsationsofthePc1range).Thismeansthatacommonsourceofthewavesandprotonprecipitationis the ion-cyclotron(IC)instabilitydevelopinginthevicinityoftheequatorialplane.Differentformsof the protonaurorasreflectdifferentregimesoftheICinstabilityanddifferentconditionsinthenear- Earth equatorialmagnetosphere.Tounderstandwhataretheconditionsforthegenerationofthesub- oval protonauroraonemaymaptheauroraontotheequatorialplaneandcomparetheprojectionwith someimportantmagnetosphericboundaries.Inthisreportwecomparetheprojectionofso-called ‘‘protonauroraspots’’withthelocationoftheplasmapause.Thelatterisdeterminedbythe plasmapauseformationmodelbasedonthequasi-interchangeinstabilitymechanism.Thecomparison showsthatoftentheprotonauroraspotsourceislocatedinthevicinityoftheplasmapauseorinthe cold plasmagradientinsidetheplasmapause.Insomeevents,theprotonauroraspotsmapwelloutside the plasmapause.WeassumethatinthelattercasetheICinstabilitydevelopswhenwestwarddrifting energeticprotonsinteractwiththecoldplasmathatwasearlierdetachedfromtheplasmasphere.
- Affiliations
Citations
Yahnin, A. G., Yahnina, T. A., Frey, H., & Pierrard, V. (2013). Sub-oval proton aurora spots: Mapping relatively to the plasmapause. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar - Terrestrial Physics, 99, 61-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2012.09.018 (Original work published 2013)