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Quasiperiodic oscillations observed at the edge of an auroral arc by auroral turbulence 2
Author(s) -
Ivchenko Nickolay,
Marklund Göran,
Lynch Kristina,
Pietrowski David,
Torbert Roy,
Primdahl Fritz,
Ranta Aarne
Publication year - 1999
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 - 10.1029/1999gl003588
Subject(s) - quasiperiodic function , physics , ionosphere , geophysics , electric field , electron precipitation , sounding rocket , amplitude , magnetic field , turbulence , arc (geometry) , substorm , depth sounding , magnetosphere , optics , geology , meteorology , condensed matter physics , astronomy , mathematics , quantum mechanics , oceanography , geometry
The Auroral Turbulence II (AT2) sounding rocket carried three payloads into the auroral ionosphere where they crossed several arc structures. At the border of an auroral arc a quasiperiodic structure was observed by the magnetic and electric field instruments as well as by the particle detectors. The variations were temporal oscillations, but existed only in a narrow (≈ 7 km) region transverse to the arc, with a correlation length along the arc of at least several km. The relation between the electric and magnetic field amplitude indicates the Alfvénic nature of the variations. Field aligned electron precipitation is correlated to the field variations. The narrow band nature of the oscillations and frequency around 0.6 Hz is consistent with waves confined in the ionospheric Alfvén resonator.