Fast evolving spatial structure of auroral parallel electric fields

Electron cyclotron waves in the presence of parallel electric fields in the Earth’s auroral plasma

The electron cyclotron waves that originate at low altitudes ( 0.5 R E ) and observed by ground facilities have been studied in the presence of a weak parallel electric field in auroral magnetoplasma consisting of trapped energetic auroral electrons and cold background electrons of ionospheric origin. The model distribution for auroral trapped electrons is taken as Maxwellian ring distribution....

Magnetic Braiding and Parallel Electric Fields

The braiding of the solar coronal magnetic field via photospheric motions – with subsequent relaxation and magnetic reconnection – is one of the most widely debated ideas of solar physics. We readdress the theory in the light of developments in three-dimensional magnetic reconnection theory. It is known that the integrated parallel electric field along field lines is the key quantity determinin...

Incoherent Scatter Radar Observations of Westward Electric Fields and Plasma Densities in the Auroral Ionosphere, 1

Luminosity variations in several parallel auroral arcs before auroral breakup

Variation of the luminosity in two parallel auroral arcs before auroral breakup has been studied by using digitised TV-data with high temporal and spatial resolution. The intervals when a new arc appears near already existing one were chosen for analysis. It is shown, for all cases, that the appearance of a new arc is accompanied by fading or disappearance of another arc. We have named these ev...

Displacement current and the generation of parallel electric fields.

We show for the first time the dynamical relationship between the generation of magnetic field-aligned electric field (E||) and the temporal changes and spatial gradients of magnetic and velocity shears, and the plasma density in Earth's magnetosphere. We predict that the signatures of reconnection and auroral particle acceleration should have a correlation with low plasma density, and a locali...