A study of high-latitude auroral arcs using radar, optical, and in situ techniques

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:6306095

Weiss, L A

Two experimental campaigns designed to study high-latitude auroral arcs have been conducted in Sonde Stromfjord, Greenland. The Polar Acceleration Regions and Convection Study (Polar ARCS) on February 26, 1987, consisted of a coordinated set of ground-based and sounding rocket measurements of a weak, sun-aligned arc within the duskside polar cap, while the Rodeo 1 and 2 experiments, conducted during December, 1988 and October, 1989, involved uniquely coordinated optical and radar measurements of high-latitude arcs occurring at the poleward boundary of the auroral oval. Analysis of the large-scale Polar ARCS data indicate anti-sunward convection in the region between the dusk-side auroral oval and the sun-aligned arc. This convection signature is consistent with either a model in which the sun-aligned arcs formed on open field lines over the polar cap or on closed field lines threading an expanded low-latitude boundary layer, but not a model in which the polar cap arc field lines map to an expanded plasma sheet. Electron measurements indicate that the rocket passed through three narrow (less than or equal to 20 km) regions of low-energy (less than or equal to 100 eV) electron precipitation. An electrodynamic analysis has shown the electric and magnetic field perturbations in these regions to be well correlated and associated with small-scale upward and downward field-aligned currents of 1-2 micro-A/sq m. The Rodeo measurements have been used to examine the aeronomic and electrodynamic characteristics of two optically stable arcs occurring at different magnetic local times and exhibiting different relationships to the polar cap/convection reversal boundary.

• Research Organization: Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6306095
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661320* -- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AURORAL OVAL
CONVECTION
CRYOSPHERE
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ENERGY TRANSFER
HEAT TRANSFER
MASS TRANSFER
PLASMA
PLASMA JETS
PLASMA SHEET
POLAR REGIONS