Open AccessOhmic heating as evidence for strong field‐aligned currents in filamentary aurora
Author(s) -
Lanchester B. S.,
Rees M. H.,
Lummerzheim D.,
Otto A.,
SedgemoreSchulthess K. J. F.,
Zhu H.,
McCrea I. W.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/1999ja000292
Subject(s) - electron , electron temperature , joule heating , incoherent scatter , ohmic contact , atomic physics , electron density , ion , physics , materials science , field (mathematics) , computational physics , geophysics , ionosphere , nuclear physics , nanotechnology , mathematics , layer (electronics) , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics
A large increase in electron temperature measured in filamentary aurora with the European incoherent scatter radar has been modeled with a one‐dimensional electron transport and ion chemistry code. To account for the observed changes in electron temperature, while also reproducing the measured E region electron density profiles, a source of electron heating is required in addition to local heating from energy degradation of the precipitating electrons. We show that ohmic heating in a strong field‐aligned current can account for the required heat source.