A correlation between auroral kilometric radiation and field-aligned currents. Progress report

Technical Report · Tue May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1979

OSTI ID:5245417

Green, J L; Saflekos, N A; Gurnett, D A; Potemra, T A

Simultaneous observations of field-aligned currents (FAC) and auroral kilometric radiation (AKR) are compared from the polar orbiting satellites Triad and Hawkeye. The Triad observations were restricted to the evening-to-midnight local time sector (19 to 01 hours magnetic local time) in the northern hemisphere. This is the region where it is believed the most intense storms of AKR originate. The Hawkeye observations were restricted to when the satellite was in the AKR 'emissions cone' in the northern hemisphere and at radial distances = or > 7 R(E) (earth radii) to avoid local propagation cutoff effects. A normalization to the power flux measurements of the kilometric radiation from Hawkeye is used to take into account the radial dependence of this radiation and to scale all intensity measurements such that they are independent of Hawkeye's position in the emission cone. Integrated field-aligned current intensities from Triad are determined from the observed transverse magnetic field disturbances. Statistically, there is good correlation between the AKR intensity and the integrated current sheet intensity of field-aligned currents. It is found that as the intensity of auroral kilometric radiation increases so does the integrated auroral zone current sheet intensity increase.

• Research Organization: Iowa Univ., Iowa City (USA). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
• OSTI ID: 5245417
• Report Number(s): AD-A-076413
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
640203 -- Atmospheric Physics-- Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (-1987)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALIGNMENT
AURORAE
CORRELATIONS
CURRENTS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTROJETS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
LONG WAVE RADIATION
MAGNETIC STORMS
MAGNETOMETERS
MAGNETOSPHERE
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
RADIATIONS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
SATELLITES