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Sources of field‐aligned currents in the auroral plasma
Author(s) -
Marshall J. A.,
Burch J. L.,
Kan J. R.,
Reiff P. H.,
Slavin J. A.
Publication year - 1991
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 - 10.1029/90gl02674
Subject(s) - magnetometer , plasma , physics , current (fluid) , geophysics , voltage drop , field (mathematics) , current density , drop (telecommunication) , computational physics , magnetic field , geology , nuclear physics , electrical engineering , quantum mechanics , mathematics , pure mathematics , thermodynamics , engineering
Data from the Dynamics Explorer 1 High Altitude Plasma Instrument (HAPI) and magnetometer are used to investigate the sources of field‐aligned currents in the nightside auroral zone. It is found that the formula developed by S. Knight predicts the field‐aligned current density fairly accurately in regions where a significant potential drop can be inferred from the HAPI data; there are, however, regions in which the proportionality between potential drop and field‐aligned current does not hold. In particular, we note occurrences of strong upward field‐aligned current associated not with inverted‐V events but instead with supratherrnal bursts. In addition, upward field‐aligned currents are often observed to peak near the edges of inverted‐V events, rather than in the center as would be predicted by Knight.