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Chaston et al. 2005
Chaston, C.C., Peticolas, L.M., Carlson, C.W., McFadden, J.P., Mozer, F., Wilber, M., Parks, G.K., Hull, A., Ergun, R.E., Strangeway, R.J., Andre, M., Khotyaintsev, Y., Goldstein, M.L., Acuña, M., Lund, E.J., Reme, H., Dandouras, I., Fazakerley, A.N. and Balogh, A. (2005). Energy deposition by Alfvén waves into the dayside auroral oval: Cluster and FAST observations. Journal of Geophysical Research 110: doi: 10.1029/2004JA010483. issn: 0148-0227.

We report in situ observations from the Cluster and FAST spacecraft showing the deposition of energy into the auroral ionosphere from broadband ULF waves in the cusp and low-latitude boundary layer. A comparison of the wave Poynting flux with particle energy and flux at both satellites indicates that energy transfer from the broadband waves to the plasma occurs through field-aligned electron acceleration, transverse ion acceleration, and Joule heating. These processes are shown to result in precipitating electron fluxes sufficient to drive bright aurora and cause outflows of energized electrons and O+ ions from the ionosphere into the low-latitude boundary layer. By solving an eigenmode equation for Alfv¿n waves in the observed plasma environment, it is shown that the broadband waves observed at Cluster and FAST are dispersive Alfv¿n waves. It is demonstrated that these waves have wavelengths perpendicular to the geomagnetic field extending from significant fractions of an L shell down to ion gyroradii and electron inertial lengths and wave frequencies in the plasma frame from 1 mHz up to 50 mHz. These waves are shown to have wavelengths along the geomagnetic field of the order of the field line length between the ionosphere and the equatorial plane and become field line resonances (FLRs) when on closed field lines. It is shown that the inclusion of nonlinear and/or nonlocal kinetic effects is required in the description of these waves to account for accelerated particles observed. On the basis of the wave polarization and spectral properties observed from Cluster and FAST it is speculated that these waves are generated through the mode conversion of surface Alfv¿n waves driven by tailward flows in the low-latitude boundary layer.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Ionosphere, Auroral ionosphere, Magnetospheric Physics, Energetic particles, precipitating, Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetopause and boundary layers, Magnetospheric Physics, MHD waves and instabilities (2149, 6050, 7836), Magnetospheric Physics, Plasma waves and instabilities, Alfven waves, aurora, boundary layers, field line resonances, particle acceleration, electric fields
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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