Potential Association Between the Low-Energy Plasma Structure and the Patchy Pulsating Aurora

While the pulsating auroral phenomena have been recognized and studied for decades, our understating of their generation mechanisms remains incomplete to date. In one main class of pulsating auroras which is termed “patchy pulsating auroras” (PPA), the auroral patches are found to basically maintain their shape and size over many pulsation cycles. Also, PPAs are repeatedly found to essentially co-move with the ExB convection drift. The above properties led many researchers to hypothesize that PPA might connect to a structure of enhanced cold plasma in the magnetosphere. In this study, we review the existing evidence, and provide new perspective and support, of the low-energy plasma structure potentially associated with PPA. Based on observations from both the magnetosphere and the topside ionosphere, we suggest that ionospheric auroral outflows might constitute one possible source mechanism of the flux tubes with enhanced low-energy plasma that connect to the PPA. We also review the existing theories of pulsating auroras, with particular focus on the role of low-energy plasma in these theories. To date, none of the existing theories are complete and mature enough to offer a quantitatively satisfactory explanation of pulsating auroras. At last, we suggest a few future research directions to advance our understanding of pulsating auroras: a) more accurate measurements of the cold plasma density, b) more developed theories of the underlying mechanisms of ELF/VLF wave modulation, and c) auxiliary processes in the topside ionosphere or near-Earth region accompanying pulsating auroras.

Multi-scale Analysis of Electromagnetic Energy Input using Swarm: Quantifying Key Scales in Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling

<p>Electromagnetic energy transfer in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling (MIC) is an inherently multiscale process, where the relative contributions of various scale sizes, linked to various auroral phenomena, are largely unknown. While work in previous decades has largely focused on large scales, in recent years with the development of new instrumentation smaller scale electromagnetic disturbances have once again come into focus. Recent work by the authors has demonstrated evidence that small-scale processes appear to be so important as to potentially account for a global interhemispheric asymmetry in ionospheric energy input. This study attempts to statistically quantify the contribution of energy at the small and mesoscales using Poynting flux, calculated using the unprecedented ESA Swarm mission dataset of simultaneous electric and magnetic field measurements at 16 Hz, with statistics now spanning several years. We find important contributions at small scales to the total energy budget, while at the same time noting that there appears to be a limit above which energy content tends to drop off. In the context of previous observations from other spacecraft this may shed light on key small-scale processes happening in and around the auroral acceleration region, in particular discrete arcs and Alfvén wave reflection from the ionosphere, which are important in forming inputs to coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere modelling studies.</p>

Revisiting substorm events with preonset aurora

Nishimura et al. (2010) proposed a new plasma intrusion or preonset aurora scenario of substorm triggering. In this scenario, a substorm is triggered by a fast earthward flow generated at the distant neutral line which corresponds to a preonset auroral streamer or arc in the ionosphere propagating from the auroral poleward boundary to the initial auroral brightening site, i.e., “preonset aurora”. In the present paper, we revisited three substorm events reported as being triggered by such a mechanism related to preonset auroras, based on THEMIS ground-based all-sky imager data. Unlike previous studies, we examined the arrival timing of the preonset aurora relative to the three steps of auroral onset arc development (initial brightening, enhancement of the wave-like structure, and poleward expansion) to make the role of the preonset aurora in the auroral steps clearer. Our detailed timing analysis found that preonset auroral streamers reached the auroral onset arc but away from the initial brightening site after initial brightening for two events, while no preonset aurora reaching the initial brightening site could be identified for the other event. This result suggests that the processes associated with auroral streamers are unlikely to affect at least initial brightening, even if we consider not only the presence and arrival timing and location of the auroral streamers but also the scale of the corresponding flow and flow vortices. We list a series of open questions for testing the preonset aurora scenario further in future studies. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (storms and substorms; auroral phenomena; magnetotail)

Kristian Birkeland's pioneering investigations of geomagnetic disturbances

More than 100 years ago Kristian Birkeland (1967–1917) addressed questions that had vexed scientists for centuries. Why do auroras appear overhead while the Earth's magnetic field is disturbed? Are magnetic storms on Earth related to disturbances on the Sun? To answer these questions Birkeland devised terrella simulations, led coordinated campaigns in the Arctic wilderness, and then interpreted his results in the light of Maxwell's synthesis of laws governing electricity and magnetism. After analyzing thousands of magnetograms, he divided disturbances into 3 categories: 1. Polar elementary storms are auroral-latitude disturbances now called substorms. 2. Equatorial perturbations correspond to initial and main phases of magnetic storms. 3. Cyclo-median perturbations reflect enhanced solar-quiet currents on the dayside. He published the first two-cell pattern of electric currents in Earth's upper atmosphere, nearly 30 years before the ionosphere was identified as a separate entity. Birkeland's most enduring contribution toward understanding geomagnetic disturbances flowed from his recognition that field-aligned currents must connect the upper atmosphere with generators in distant space. The existence of field-aligned currents was vigorously debated among scientists for more than 50 years. Birkeland's conjecture profoundly affects present-day understanding of auroral phenomena and global electrodynamics. In 1896, four years after Lord Kelvin rejected suggestions that matter passes between the Sun and Earth, and two years before the electron was discovered, Birkeland proposed current carriers are "electric corpuscles from the Sun" and "the auroras are formed by corpuscular rays drawn in from space, and coming from the Sun". It can be reasonably argued that the year 1896 marks the founding of space plasma physics. Many of Birkeland's insights were rooted in observations made during his terrella experiments, the first attempts to simulate cosmic phenomena within a laboratory. Birkeland's ideas were often misinterpreted or dismissed, but were verified when technology advances allowed instrumented spacecraft to fly in space above the ionosphere.

Auroral and sub-auroral phenomena: an electrostatic picture

Many auroral and sub-auroral phenomena are manifestations of an underlying magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. In the electrostatic perspective the associated auroral current circuit describes how the generator (often in the magnetosphere) is connected to the load (often in the ionosphere) through field-aligned currents. The present paper examines the generic properties of the current continuity equation that characterizes the auroral circuit. The physical role of the various elements of the current circuit is illustrated by considering a number of magnetospheric configurations, various auroral current-voltage relations, and different types of behaviour of the ionospheric conductivity. Based on realistic assumptions concerning the current-voltage relation and the ionospheric conductivity, a comprehensive picture of auroral and sub-auroral phenomena is presented, including diffuse aurora, discrete auroral arcs, black aurora, and subauroral ion drift. The electrostatic picture of field-aligned potential differences, field-aligned currents, ionospheric electric fields and plasma drift, and spatial scales for all these phenomena is in qualitative agreement with observations.

A statistical study of intense electric fields at 4−7 R_<i>E</i> geocentric distance using Cluster

Intense high-latitude electric fields (>150 mV/m mapped to ionospheric altitude) at 4–7 RE geocentric distance have been investigated in a statistical study, using data from the Cluster satellites. The orbit of the Cluster satellites limits the data collection at these altitudes to high latitudes, including the poleward part of the auroral oval. The occurrence and distribution of the selected events have been used to characterize the intense electric fields and to investigate their dependance on parameters such as MLT, CGLat, altitude, and also Kp. Peaks in the local time distribution are found in the evening to morning sectors but also in the noon sector, corresponding to cusp events. The electric field intensities decrease with increasing latitude in the region investigated (above 60 CGLat). A dependence on geomagnetic activity is indicated since the probability of finding an event increases up to Kp=5–6. The scales sizes are in the range up to 10 km (mapped to ionospheric altitude) with a maximum around 4–5km, consistent with earlier findings at lower altitudes and Cluster event studies. The magnitudes of the electric fields are inversely proportional to the scale sizes. The type of electric field structure (convergent or divergent) is consistent with the FAC direction for a subset of events with electric field intensities in the range 500–1000 mV/m and with clear bipolar signatures. The FAC directions are also consistent with the Region 1 and NBZ current systems, the latter of which prevail only during northward IMF conditions. For scale sizes less than 2 km the majority of the events were divergent electric field structures. Both converging and diverging electric fields were found throughout the investigated altitude range (4–7 RE geocentric distance). Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Electric fields; Auroral phenomena; Magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions)

Transition from substorm growth to substorm expansion phase as observed with a radial configuration of ISTP and Cluster spacecraft

Transition from the growth phase to the substorm expansion during a well-isolated substorm with a strong growth phase is investigated using a unique radial (THEMIS-like) spacecraft constellation near midnight, including the probing of the tail current at ~16 RE with Cluster, of the transition region at ~9 RE with Geotail and Polar, and of the inner region at 6.6 RE with two LANL spacecraft. The activity development on both a global scale and near the spacecraft footpoints was monitored with global auroral images (from the IMAGE spacecraft) and the ground network. Magnetospheric models, tuned using in-situ observations, indicated a strong tail stretching and plasma sheet thinning, which included the growth of the near-Earth current (approaching 30 nA/m2) and possible formation of a local B minimum in the neutral sheet (~5 nT) at ~10–12 RE near the substorm onset. However, there were no indications that the substorm onset was initiated just in this region. We emphasize the rather weak magnetic and plasma flow perturbations observed outside the thinned plasma sheet at Cluster, which could be interpreted as the effects of localized earthward-contracting newly-reconnected plasma tubes produced by the impulsive reconnection in the midtail plasma sheet. In that case the time delays around the distinct substorm onset are consistent with the activity propagation from the midtail to the inner magnetosphere. A peculiar feature of this substorm was that 12min prior to this distinct onset, a clear soft plasma injection to the GEO orbit was recorded which has little associated effects both in the ionosphere and in the transition region at ~9 RE. This pseudo-breakup was probably due to either a localized ballooning-type activity or due to the braking of a very narrow BBF whose signatures were also recorded by Cluster. This event manifested the (previously unknown) phenomenon, a strong tail overloading (excessive storage of magnetic energy) contrasted to the modest energy dissipation and plasma acceleration, which are both discussed and interpreted as the consequences of cold/dense and thick pre-substorm plasma sheet which often occurs after the long quiet period. The lessons of using the radial spacecraft configurations in substorm onset studies are also discussed. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Auroral phenomena, plasma sheet, storms and substorms)