Book Description

The discrete aurora results when energized electrons bombard the Earth's atmosphere at high latitudes. This paper examines the physical processes that can cause field-aligned acceleration of plasma particles in the auroral region. A data and theoretical study has been carried out to examine the acceleration mechanisms that operate in the auroral zone and to identity the magnetospheric drivers of these acceleration mechanisms. The observations used in the study were collected by the Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) and Polar satellites when the two satellites were in approximate magnetic conjunction in the auroral region. During these events FAST was in the middle of the auroral zone and Polar was above the auroral zone in the near-Earth plasma sheet. Polar data was used to determine the conditions in the magnetotail at the time field-aligned acceleration was measured by FAST in the auroral zone. For each of the magnetotail drivers identified in the data study, the physics of field-aligned acceleration in the auroral region was examined using existing theoretical efforts and a long-system particle-in-cell simulation to model the magnetically connected region between the two satellites.Schriver, D. and Ashour-Abdalla, M. and Strangeway, R. J. and Richard, R. L. and Klezting, C. and Dotan, Y. and Wygant, J.Goddard Space Flight CenterAURORAL ZONES; POLAR REGIONS; ELECTRON ACCELERATION; PLASMA ACCELERATORS; ELECTRIC FIELDS; SATELLITE OBSERVATION; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC WAVES