Plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: EISCAT Svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events
International audience We report high-resolution observations of the southward-IMF cusp/cleft ionosphere made on December 16th 1998 by the EISCAT (European incoherent scatter) Svalbard radar (ESR), and compare them with observations of dayside auroral luminosity, as seen at a wavelength of 630 nm by...
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2000
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-00329158 https://hal.science/hal-00329158/document https://hal.science/hal-00329158/file/angeo-18-1027-2000.pdf |
id |
ftinsu:oai:HAL:hal-00329158v1 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftinsu:oai:HAL:hal-00329158v1 2023-11-12T04:16:36+01:00 Plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: EISCAT Svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events Lockwood, M. Mccrea, I. W. Milan, S. E. Moen, J. Cerisier, J. C. Thorolfsson, A. School of Physics and Astronomy Southampton University of Southampton Space Science and Technology Department Didcot (RAL Space) STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)-Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Department of Physics and Astronomy Leicester University of Leicester Arctic Geophysics Research The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) Centre d'étude des environnements terrestre et planétaires (CETP) Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Science Institute Reykjavik University of Iceland Reykjavik 2000 https://hal.science/hal-00329158 https://hal.science/hal-00329158/document https://hal.science/hal-00329158/file/angeo-18-1027-2000.pdf en eng HAL CCSD European Geosciences Union hal-00329158 https://hal.science/hal-00329158 https://hal.science/hal-00329158/document https://hal.science/hal-00329158/file/angeo-18-1027-2000.pdf info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 0992-7689 EISSN: 1432-0576 Annales Geophysicae https://hal.science/hal-00329158 Annales Geophysicae, 2000, 18 (9), pp.1027-1042 [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2000 ftinsu 2023-10-25T16:24:33Z International audience We report high-resolution observations of the southward-IMF cusp/cleft ionosphere made on December 16th 1998 by the EISCAT (European incoherent scatter) Svalbard radar (ESR), and compare them with observations of dayside auroral luminosity, as seen at a wavelength of 630 nm by a meridian scanning photometer at Ny Ålesund, and of plasma flows, as seen by the CUTLASS (co-operative UK twin location auroral sounding system) Finland HF radar. The optical data reveal a series of poleward-moving transient red-line (630 nm) enhancements, events that have been associated with bursts in the rate of magnetopause reconnection generating new open flux. The combined observations at this time have strong similarities to predictions of the effects of soft electron precipitation modulated by pulsed reconnection, as made by Davis and Lockwood (1996); however, the effects of rapid zonal flow in the ionosphere, caused by the magnetic curvature force on the newly opened field lines, are found to be a significant additional factor. In particular, it is shown how enhanced plasma loss rates induced by the rapid convection can explain two outstanding anomalies of the 630 nm transients, namely how minima in luminosity form between the poleward-moving events and how events can re-brighten as they move poleward. The observations show how cusp/cleft aurora and transient poleward-moving auroral forms appear in the ESR data and the conditions which cause enhanced 630 nm emission in the transients: they are an important first step in enabling the ESR to identify these features away from the winter solstice when supporting auroral observations are not available. Article in Journal/Newspaper EISCAT Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard Institut national des sciences de l'Univers: HAL-INSU Lockwood ENVELOPE(167.400,167.400,-84.150,-84.150) Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Institut national des sciences de l'Univers: HAL-INSU |
op_collection_id |
ftinsu |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences |
spellingShingle |
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences Lockwood, M. Mccrea, I. W. Milan, S. E. Moen, J. Cerisier, J. C. Thorolfsson, A. Plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: EISCAT Svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events |
topic_facet |
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences |
description |
International audience We report high-resolution observations of the southward-IMF cusp/cleft ionosphere made on December 16th 1998 by the EISCAT (European incoherent scatter) Svalbard radar (ESR), and compare them with observations of dayside auroral luminosity, as seen at a wavelength of 630 nm by a meridian scanning photometer at Ny Ålesund, and of plasma flows, as seen by the CUTLASS (co-operative UK twin location auroral sounding system) Finland HF radar. The optical data reveal a series of poleward-moving transient red-line (630 nm) enhancements, events that have been associated with bursts in the rate of magnetopause reconnection generating new open flux. The combined observations at this time have strong similarities to predictions of the effects of soft electron precipitation modulated by pulsed reconnection, as made by Davis and Lockwood (1996); however, the effects of rapid zonal flow in the ionosphere, caused by the magnetic curvature force on the newly opened field lines, are found to be a significant additional factor. In particular, it is shown how enhanced plasma loss rates induced by the rapid convection can explain two outstanding anomalies of the 630 nm transients, namely how minima in luminosity form between the poleward-moving events and how events can re-brighten as they move poleward. The observations show how cusp/cleft aurora and transient poleward-moving auroral forms appear in the ESR data and the conditions which cause enhanced 630 nm emission in the transients: they are an important first step in enabling the ESR to identify these features away from the winter solstice when supporting auroral observations are not available. |
author2 |
School of Physics and Astronomy Southampton University of Southampton Space Science and Technology Department Didcot (RAL Space) STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)-Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Department of Physics and Astronomy Leicester University of Leicester Arctic Geophysics Research The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) Centre d'étude des environnements terrestre et planétaires (CETP) Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Science Institute Reykjavik University of Iceland Reykjavik |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lockwood, M. Mccrea, I. W. Milan, S. E. Moen, J. Cerisier, J. C. Thorolfsson, A. |
author_facet |
Lockwood, M. Mccrea, I. W. Milan, S. E. Moen, J. Cerisier, J. C. Thorolfsson, A. |
author_sort |
Lockwood, M. |
title |
Plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: EISCAT Svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events |
title_short |
Plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: EISCAT Svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events |
title_full |
Plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: EISCAT Svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events |
title_fullStr |
Plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: EISCAT Svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events |
title_full_unstemmed |
Plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: EISCAT Svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events |
title_sort |
plasma structure within poleward-moving cusp/cleft auroral transients: eiscat svalbard radar observations and an explanation in terms of large local time extent of events |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2000 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-00329158 https://hal.science/hal-00329158/document https://hal.science/hal-00329158/file/angeo-18-1027-2000.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(167.400,167.400,-84.150,-84.150) |
geographic |
Lockwood Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Lockwood Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
genre |
EISCAT Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
genre_facet |
EISCAT Ny Ålesund Ny-Ålesund Svalbard |
op_source |
ISSN: 0992-7689 EISSN: 1432-0576 Annales Geophysicae https://hal.science/hal-00329158 Annales Geophysicae, 2000, 18 (9), pp.1027-1042 |
op_relation |
hal-00329158 https://hal.science/hal-00329158 https://hal.science/hal-00329158/document https://hal.science/hal-00329158/file/angeo-18-1027-2000.pdf |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1782333667283042304 |