Electron acceleration in the auroral current circuit

Electron acceleration by an Alfvénic pulse propagating in an auroral plasma cavity

Electron acceleration by an Alfvénic pulse 1 propagating in an auroral plasma cavity

With the help of a 2.5D Particle In Cell (PIC) simulation code, 3 we investigate the physics of the acceleration of auroral electrons, through 4 the interaction of an isolated Alfvén wave packet with a plasma density cav-5 ity. The cavity is edged by density gradients perpendicular to the magnetic 6 field. We show that a single passing of an isolated wave packet over a (in-7 finite) cavity crea...

Superthermal Ion Signatures of Auroral Acceleration Processes

The retarding ion mass spectrometer on the Dynamics Explorer 1 spacecraft has generated a unique data set which documents, among other things, the occurrence of non-Maxwellian superthermal features in the auroral topside ionosphere distribution functions. In this paper, we provide a representative sampling of the observed features and their spatial morphology as observed at altitudes in the ran...

Satellite Observations of Auroral Acceleration Processes

Measurements with satellite and sounding rocket borne instruments contain important information on remote and local processes in regions containing matter in the plasma state. The characteristic features of the particle distributions can be used to explain the morphology and dynamics of the different plasma populations. Charged particles are lost from a region due to precipitation into the atmo...

Ponderomotive Acceleration in the Auroral Region A Kinetic Simulation

Alfvtn waves with frequencies of the order of several Hertz have been observed in the auroral region. These waves are thought to be responsible for the acceleration f !0nosphen'c particles out of the ionosphere and into the magnetosphere. As an Alfvtn wave propagates into an inhomogeneous ionosphere, the amplitude of the wave decreases resulting in a gradient in the electric field and a pondero...