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Throat aurora: The ionospheric signature of magnetosheath particles penetrating into the magnetosphere
Author(s) -
Han D.S.,
Nishimura Y.,
Lyons L. R.,
Hu H.Q.,
Yang H.G.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl068181
Subject(s) - magnetosheath , magnetopause , magnetosphere , ionosphere , geophysics , physics , electron precipitation , solar wind , field line , magnetosphere of saturn , atmospheric sciences , plasma , quantum mechanics
Throat aurora is suggested to be generated during magnetospheric cold plasma flowing into the magnetopause reconnection site and to be the ionospheric signature of the newly opened flux from reconnection. By examining simultaneous low‐altitude satellites and ground observations, we confirm that the throat auroras are associated with low‐energy electron and ion precipitation of magnetosheath type and thus provide the first evidence that they occur along open magnetic field lines. Additionally, the observations have important possible implications: (1) solar wind particles can penetrate deep into the magnetosphere and may make significant contributions to the low‐energy plasmas often observed in the dayside outer magnetosphere and (2) localized shapes of the magnetopause and the ionospheric open‐closed field line boundary may be substantially changed, during generation of the throat aurora.