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Chiu et al. 1981
Chiu, Y.T., Newman, A.L. and Cornwall, J.M. (1981). On the structures and mapping of auroral electrostatic potentials. Journal of Geophysical Research 86: doi: 10.1029/JA080i012p10029. issn: 0148-0227.

We examine the mapping of magnetospheric and ionospheric electric fields in a kinetic model of magnetospheric-ionospheric electrodynamic coupling proposed for the aurora by Chiu and Cornwell (1980). A new feature is the generalization of the kinetic current potential relationship to the return current region (identified as a region where the parallel potential drop from magnetosphere to ionosphere is positive); such a return current always exists unless the ionosphere is electrically charged to grossly unphysical values. We are able for the first time to give a coherent phenomenological picture of both the low-energy return current and the high-energy precipitation of an inverted V. The mapping between magnetospheric and ionospheric electric fields is phrased in terms of a Green's function that acts as a filter, emphasizing magnetospheric latitudinal spatial scales of order (when mapped to the ionosphere) 50-150 km. We identify this length as roughly the overall size of the inverted V region. Roughly speaking, this scale length, when multiplied by the perpendicular electric field just above the ionosphere, gives the magnitude of the parallel potential drop between the ionosphere and equatorial magnetosphere. A precise relation between these quantities is given-for the first time-in the body of the paper; previous two-dimensional kinetic models have taken the parallel potential drop as an assumed input.

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Journal of Geophysical Research
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American Geophysical Union
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