Analytic model of aurorally coupled magnetospheric and ionospheric electrostatic potentials
- Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA (United States)
This paper describes modest but significant improvements on earlier studies of electrostatic potential structure in the auroral region, using the adiabatic auroral arc model. This model has crucial nonlinearities (connected, for example, with aurorally produced ionization) which have hampered analysis; earlier work has either been linear, which the authors shows is a poor approximation or, if nonlinear, either numerical or too specialized to study parametric dependencies. With certain simplifying assumptions he finds new analytic nonlinear solutions fully exhibiting the parametric dependence of potentials on magnetospheric (e.g., cross-tail potential) and ionospheric (e.g., recombination rate) parameters. No purely phenomenological parameters are introduced. The results are in reasonable agreement with observed average auroral potential drops, inverted-V scale sizes, and dissipation rates. The dissipation rate is quite comparable to tail energization and transport rates and should have a major effect on tail and magnetospheric dynamics. This paper gives various relations between the cross-tail potential and auroral parameters (e.g., total parallel currents and potential drops) which can be studied with existing data sets. 29 refs., 2 figs.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 86351
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 98, Issue A9; Other Information: PBD: 1 Sep 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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