Electric fields in diffuse aurora |
| |
| Authors: | HP Mahon M Smtody RC Sagalyn |
| |
| Institution: | Physics Department, University of Massachusetts at Boston, Harbor Campus, Dorchester, MA 02125, U.S.A.;Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, Hanscom AFB, MA 01731, U.S.A. |
| |
| Abstract: | The ionospheric electric field has been measured in the E region above the Churchill auroral research range under quiet and under disturbed conditions. Results were obtained and hr before local midnight over an altitude range of 115–165 km. The instruments and analysis differ from those used by other workers. An unusually advantageous vehicle motion resulted in dipole measurements along the magnetic field being modulated by the vehicle motion. Under quiet conditions and in the presence of a diffuse, east-west 2 kR auroral arc, the predominant vector component of the electric field was also quiet and between 35 and 40 perpendicular to the magnetic field, southward. Parallel to the magnetic field, the vector component increased from ?17 mV/m at 130 km, reversed direction at 160 km during the latter third of the flight and fluctuated around + 6 mV/m between 155 and 135 km on the descent. Under disturbed conditions during the recovery phase of a large magnetic storm, the electric field was also more disturbed; however, there was no significant electric field along B. Analysis of effects caused when parts of the measurement system are connected by a common magnetic field line, and when one of the probes lies in the wake of the vehicle, shows that measurement perturbations produced by those effects are dominated by the magnetic field line connections and that wake effects are relatively unimportant. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
