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Simultaneous rocket and radar measurements of currents in an auroral arc
Ist Teil von
Journal of Geophysical Research, 1981-09, Vol.86 (A9), p.7703-7717
Ort / Verlag
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Erscheinungsjahr
1981
Beschreibungen/Notizen
A detailed study of electric field, current and conductivities associated with an auroral arc was made in a coordinated rocket and radar experiment in Alaska on March 9, 1978. The payload, designated 29.007 UE, was launched at 1013 p.m. local time. It penetrated the diffuse aurora on the upleg and at apogee traversed field lines connected to a stable auroral arc of 40 kR intensity. Among the instruments carried by the payload were a vector magnetometer, a set of electrostatic double probes and a set of electron and proton spectrometers. Simultaneous electron density and line‐of‐sight velocity measurements were made by the Chatanika radar operating in an elevation scan mode in the magnetic meridian plane. Both the radar and rocket measurements indicated that the zonal electric field was westward and approximately constant across the arc with a magnitude of about 7 mV/m. Small differences between the rocket and radar zonal electric field measurements indicated the presence of upward drifting ions in the region of the arc. The meridional field was large and northward equatorward of the arc, but negligible within the arc. Conductivities computed from measured fluxes of energetic electrons agreed well with the conductivities derived from the radar measurements of electron density. The electric field and conductivity measurements indicated that the zonal currents were eastward equatorward of the arc and westward within the arc. These electrojet currents agreed well with those inferred from the rocket magnetometer data. Better agreement was obtained when a westward neutral wind was added. The westward wind was also consistent with differences between the rocket and radar meridional electric fields. The meridional currents computed from the electric field measurements were northward over the entire region. Since the northward current was enhanced within the arc, a pair of oppositely directed field‐aligned current sheets associated with the arc edges was inferred. However, these current sheets were not detected by the rocket‐borne vector magnetometer. The magnetometer measured a downward current in the diffuse aurora equatorward of a wide region of upward current within which the arc was embedded. The differences in the field‐aligned current patterns inferred from the two methods are attributed either to a time dependent field‐aligned current profile or east‐west current divergence in the region of the Harang discontinuity.
Sprache
Englisch
Identifikatoren
ISSN: 0148-0227
eISSN: 2156-2202
DOI: 10.1029/JA086iA09p07703
Titel-ID: cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_23847331
Format
–
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