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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1998

Auroral Kilometric Radiation Integrated Power Flux as a Proxy for A E

We propose to use the integrated intensity of auroral kilometric radiation from Polar measurements as a proxy for the auroral electrojet index A(sub E) in support of studies of the response of the magnetosphere and the geomagnetic tail to changes in magnetic activity. In addition to providing event timing information to understand the effects of perturbations and substorms, the resulting space-based auroral kilometric radiation index would be useful as an input to space weather efforts as an auroral activity metric.

Kurth, W. S.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Measurement of auroral Birkeland currents

Results are presented for measurements of the auroral current made with a rocket-borne experiment over Fort Churchill, Canada, during the February-May period in 1968. On the upward leg of the rocket flight there were detected a westward auroral current of 10,000 A near 96 km altitude and two oppositely directed Birkeland currents of about 0.00005 A per sq m at about 160 km altitude. On the downward leg there were revealed a westward filament of current of about 0.0008 A per sq m at about 220 km altitude, two oppositely directed Birkeland sheet currents of about 0.00014 A per sq m at about 230 km altitude, and two oppositely directed Birkeland currents of about 0.00007 A per sq m which fed a westward auroral electrojet of about 0.0010 A per sq m at about 100 km altitude and were associated with a bright rayed arc. A reversal in the Birkeland current system near midnight was also observed. These observations are probably manifestations of the complex nature of small-scale currents associated with complicated auroral forms.

Ifedili, S. O.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Auroral vector electric field and particle comparisons. II - Electrodynamics of an arc

The paper reports the results of energetic auroral electron and vector electric field measurements taken near and above a discrete auroral form and discusses their electrodynamic implications. Height-integrated Hall and Pedersen conductivities are computed in a quantitative fashion along the rocket payload trajectory. These conductivities, together with the electric fields, are used to describe the local auroral electrojet current system and to demonstrate an inverse relationship between the local electric field intensity and the height-integrated Pedersen conductivity. An analysis is presented of the divergence of both the electric field and the horizontal current as an effort to infer space charge densities and magnetic-field-aligned electrical currents near an auroral arc.

Evans, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Precipitating electron energy flux and auroral zone conductances - An empirical model

Data from the low energy electron (LEE) experiments on the Atmosphere Explorer C and D satellites have been used to determine the average global distribution of the energy flux of precipitating auroral electrons and their average energy for different levels of geomagnetic activity. Measurements from the Atmosphere Explorer unified abstract file (15-s resolution) have been binned according to invariant latitude (in the range 50-90 deg), magnetic local time, and geomagnetic activity as measured by the Kp and auroral electrojet (AE) indices, separately. Bin-averaged values of precipitating energy flux and average energy have been calculated, and a smoothing algorithm used to reduce stochastic variations in the raw data. The results indicate that, for the parameters studied, the AE inces does a superior job of ordering the data with regard to geomagnetic activity. The global distribution of the auroral enhancement porition of the Pedersen and Hall conductances were inferred from the data by means of an empirical fit to detailed energy deposition calculations.

Spiro, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Effects of the solar wind-magnetosphere coupling in March 1989

The March 1989 solar and geophysical activity are reinvestigated. To describe the geomagnetic disturbance fields, the auroral electrojet indices are calculated. Eight southern Geomagnetic Observatories placed at high latitudes are selected and their geomagnetic data are used. The models of a storm like an addition of substorms are analyzed. During disturbed periods. the temporal evolution of the solar wind parameters and the interplanetary magnetic field components are discussed. Plasmoids could be identified and their energy are estimated. Differences in both auroral rings behaviour are seen.

Silbergleit, V. M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Observations of 3-m auroral irregularities during the ERRRIS campaigns

In the late winter of 1988 and 1989, three NASA sounding rockets were flown through the auroral electrojet from ESRANGE (Sweden) as part of the E-region Rocket-Radar Instability Study (ERRRIS). Many ground-based instruments supported these flights, including the EISCAT, STARE, and CUPRI radars, as well as all-sky cameras, riometers, and magnetometers. In this paper the observations of the Cornell University Portable Radar Interferometer (CUPRI), which detected coherent backscatter from 3-m irregularities in the auroral E-region are summarized. Twenty hours of power spectra and interferometry data are available, and, during the 1989 campaign, three weeks of nearly continuous Range-Time-Intensity (RTI) and first moment data were recorded.

Sahr, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Magnetic field fluctuations during substorms

Before a magnetospheric substorm and during its early phases the magnetic field magnitude in the geomagnetic tail increases and field lines in the nighttime hemisphere assume a more tail-like configuration. Before the substorm onset a minimum amount of magnetic flux is observed to cross the neutral sheet which means that the neutral sheet currents attain their most earthward locations and their greatest current densities. This configuration apparently results from an increased transport of magnetic flux to the tail caused by a southward interplanetary magnetic field. The field begins relaxing toward a more dipolar configuration at the time of a substorm onset with the recovery probably occurring first between 6 and 10 R sub E. This recovery must be associated with magnetospheric convection which restores magnetic flux to the dayside hemisphere. Field aligned currents appear to be required to connect magnetospheric currents to the auroral electrojets, implying that a net current flows in a limited range of longitudes. Space measurements supporting current systems are limited. More evidence exists for the occurrence of double current sheets which do not involve net current at a given longitude.

Fairfield, D. H.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Radio-auroral aspect sensitivity and the two-stream instability.

The possibility is explored that the auroral electrojet current motions may be sufficiently great not only to introduce some distortion in the magnetic field, but also to substantially increase the maximum deviation from orthogonality permitted by Farley's mechanism. These two effects are then combined to give an approximate indication of how the aspect sensitivity should vary with current strength and direction.

Moorcroft, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Magnetospheric substorms.

A proposed model of the substorm growth phase describes a gradual development of internal magnetospheric convection driven by enhanced field-line reconnection at the front-side magnetopause. The observed increased tail magnetic field, inward motion of the tail current system, and inward displacement of the plasma sheet inner edge are shown to follow from a line-tied inward motion of the dayside magnetopause and a slow development of magnetospheric convection. Resulting changes in the nightside auroral oval ionosphere lead to the formation of the auroral electrojet which is the ground signature (magnetically) of substorm breakup.

Coroniti, F. V.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Electric fields in the ionosphere and magnetosphere.

Review of current techniques for measuring ionospheric and magnetospheric electric fields and existing measurements. Considerable progress in understanding electric fields has been made in the auroral regions where fields originating basically from convection patterns in the magnetosphere and modified by ionospheric interaction have been detected by both the barium ion cloud and double floating probe techniques and have been compared against predictions. The anticorrelation of electric fields and auroral arcs, the establishment of the auroral electrojet currents as Hall currents, the irregular nature of the electric fields, and the reversal of the electric fields between the eastward and westward electrojet regions have been some of the important observations. Recent barium ion cloud observations in the polar cap have indicated that the long assumed electrojet return current across the polar cap does not exist.

Maynard, N. C.↗