Do magnetospheric shear Alfvén waves generate sufficient electron energy flux to power the aurora?

Watt, C. E. J. and Rankin, R. (2010) Do magnetospheric shear Alfvén waves generate sufficient electron energy flux to power the aurora? Journal of Geophysical Research, 115. A07224. ISSN 0148-0227 doi: 10.1029/2009JA015185

Abstract/Summary

Using a self-consistent drift-kinetic simulation code, we investigate whether electron acceleration owing to shear Alfvén waves in the plasma sheet boundary layer is sufficient to cause auroral brightening in the ionosphere. The free parameters used in the simulation code are guided by in situ observations of wave and plasma parameters in the magnetosphere at distances >4 RE from the Earth. For the perpendicular wavelength used in the study, which maps to ∼4 km at 110 km altitude, there is a clear amplitude threshold which determines whether magnetospheric shear Alfvén waves above the classical auroral acceleration region can excite sufficient electrons to create the aurora. Previous studies reported wave amplitudes that easily exceed this threshold; hence, the results reported in this paper demonstrate that auroral acceleration owing to shear Alfvén waves can occur in the magnetosphere at distances >4 RE from the Earth.

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Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/32811
Identification Number/DOI	10.1029/2009JA015185
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling; particle precipitation
Additional Information	This item also contains the full text of a subsequent reply to a comment on the original article. The related URL is the DOI of the subsequent reply
Publisher	American Geophysical Union
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