Spatially Resolved Neutral Wind Response Times During High Geomagnetic Activity Above Svalbard
It has previously been shown that in the high-latitude thermosphere, sudden changes in plasma velocity (such as those due to changes in interplanetary magnetic field) are not immediately propagated into the neutral gas via the ion-drag force. This is due to the neutral particles (O, O2, and N2) cons...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics |
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Language: | English |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU), Wiley
2019
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Online Access: | https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JA026627 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/45483 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA026627 |
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ftleicester:oai:lra.le.ac.uk:2381/45483 2023-05-15T18:29:53+02:00 Spatially Resolved Neutral Wind Response Times During High Geomagnetic Activity Above Svalbard Billett, DD Wild, JA Grocott, A Aruliah, AL Ronksley, AM Walach, MT Lester, M 2019-09-04T13:33:52Z https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JA026627 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/45483 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA026627 en eng American Geophysical Union (AGU), Wiley Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 2019, 124 2169-9380 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JA026627 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/45483 doi:10.1029/2019JA026627 2169-9402 Copyright © the authors, 2019. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY ionosphere thermosphere coupling magnetosphere neutrals plasma Journal Article 2019 ftleicester https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA026627 2019-09-05T22:43:33Z It has previously been shown that in the high-latitude thermosphere, sudden changes in plasma velocity (such as those due to changes in interplanetary magnetic field) are not immediately propagated into the neutral gas via the ion-drag force. This is due to the neutral particles (O, O2, and N2) constituting the bulk mass of the thermospheric altitude range and thus holding on to residual inertia from a previous level of geomagnetic forcing. This means that consistent forcing (or dragging) from the ionospheric plasma is required, over a period of time, long enough for the neutrals to reach an equilibrium with regard to ion drag. Furthermore, mesoscale variations in the plasma convection morphology, solar pressure gradients, and other forces indicate that the thermosphere-ionosphere coupling mechanism will also vary in strength across small spatial scales. Using data from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network and a Scanning Doppler Imager, a geomagnetically active event was identified, which showed plasma flows clearly imparting momentum to the neutrals. A cross-correlation analysis determined that the average time for the neutral winds to accelerate fully into the direction of ion drag was 75 min, but crucially, this time varied by up to 30 min (between 67 and 97 min) within a 1,000-km field of view at an altitude of around 250 km. It is clear from this that the mesoscale structure of both the plasma and neutrals has a significant effect on ion-neutral coupling strength and thus energy transfer in the thermosphere. The authors acknowledge the use of data from SuperDARN, an international project made possible by the national funding agencies of Australia, Canada, China, France, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The UCL Scanning Doppler Imager (SCANDI) is maintained thanks to Ian McWhirter, whose efforts are gratefully acknowledged. The SuperDARN convection modeling procedure was performed using the Radar Software Toolkit version 4.1 (https://github.com/SuperDARN/rst). Quick‐look SuperDARN data plots can be viewed online (http://vt.superdarn.org/tiki-index.php?page=ASCIIData). OMNI solar wind data can be viewed and downloaded online (https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/). During this study, D. D. B was supported by Lancaster University. A. G, A. L. A, A. M. R., and M.‐T. W were supported by NERC Grant NE/P001556/1 Peer-reviewed Publisher Version Article in Journal/Newspaper Svalbard University of Leicester: Leicester Research Archive (LRA) Svalbard Canada Omni ENVELOPE(144.232,144.232,59.863,59.863) Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 124 8 6950 6960 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Leicester: Leicester Research Archive (LRA) |
op_collection_id |
ftleicester |
language |
English |
topic |
ionosphere thermosphere coupling magnetosphere neutrals plasma |
spellingShingle |
ionosphere thermosphere coupling magnetosphere neutrals plasma Billett, DD Wild, JA Grocott, A Aruliah, AL Ronksley, AM Walach, MT Lester, M Spatially Resolved Neutral Wind Response Times During High Geomagnetic Activity Above Svalbard |
topic_facet |
ionosphere thermosphere coupling magnetosphere neutrals plasma |
description |
It has previously been shown that in the high-latitude thermosphere, sudden changes in plasma velocity (such as those due to changes in interplanetary magnetic field) are not immediately propagated into the neutral gas via the ion-drag force. This is due to the neutral particles (O, O2, and N2) constituting the bulk mass of the thermospheric altitude range and thus holding on to residual inertia from a previous level of geomagnetic forcing. This means that consistent forcing (or dragging) from the ionospheric plasma is required, over a period of time, long enough for the neutrals to reach an equilibrium with regard to ion drag. Furthermore, mesoscale variations in the plasma convection morphology, solar pressure gradients, and other forces indicate that the thermosphere-ionosphere coupling mechanism will also vary in strength across small spatial scales. Using data from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network and a Scanning Doppler Imager, a geomagnetically active event was identified, which showed plasma flows clearly imparting momentum to the neutrals. A cross-correlation analysis determined that the average time for the neutral winds to accelerate fully into the direction of ion drag was 75 min, but crucially, this time varied by up to 30 min (between 67 and 97 min) within a 1,000-km field of view at an altitude of around 250 km. It is clear from this that the mesoscale structure of both the plasma and neutrals has a significant effect on ion-neutral coupling strength and thus energy transfer in the thermosphere. The authors acknowledge the use of data from SuperDARN, an international project made possible by the national funding agencies of Australia, Canada, China, France, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The UCL Scanning Doppler Imager (SCANDI) is maintained thanks to Ian McWhirter, whose efforts are gratefully acknowledged. The SuperDARN convection modeling procedure was performed using the Radar Software Toolkit version 4.1 (https://github.com/SuperDARN/rst). Quick‐look SuperDARN data plots can be viewed online (http://vt.superdarn.org/tiki-index.php?page=ASCIIData). OMNI solar wind data can be viewed and downloaded online (https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/). During this study, D. D. B was supported by Lancaster University. A. G, A. L. A, A. M. R., and M.‐T. W were supported by NERC Grant NE/P001556/1 Peer-reviewed Publisher Version |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Billett, DD Wild, JA Grocott, A Aruliah, AL Ronksley, AM Walach, MT Lester, M |
author_facet |
Billett, DD Wild, JA Grocott, A Aruliah, AL Ronksley, AM Walach, MT Lester, M |
author_sort |
Billett, DD |
title |
Spatially Resolved Neutral Wind Response Times During High Geomagnetic Activity Above Svalbard |
title_short |
Spatially Resolved Neutral Wind Response Times During High Geomagnetic Activity Above Svalbard |
title_full |
Spatially Resolved Neutral Wind Response Times During High Geomagnetic Activity Above Svalbard |
title_fullStr |
Spatially Resolved Neutral Wind Response Times During High Geomagnetic Activity Above Svalbard |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatially Resolved Neutral Wind Response Times During High Geomagnetic Activity Above Svalbard |
title_sort |
spatially resolved neutral wind response times during high geomagnetic activity above svalbard |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union (AGU), Wiley |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JA026627 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/45483 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA026627 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(144.232,144.232,59.863,59.863) |
geographic |
Svalbard Canada Omni |
geographic_facet |
Svalbard Canada Omni |
genre |
Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Svalbard |
op_relation |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 2019, 124 2169-9380 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JA026627 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/45483 doi:10.1029/2019JA026627 2169-9402 |
op_rights |
Copyright © the authors, 2019. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA026627 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics |
container_volume |
124 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
6950 |
op_container_end_page |
6960 |
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1766213315328999424 |