Research project MO/35/016 (Research action MO)
This project aims to present a unified image of electrodynamic coupling between the high latitude ionospheric processes occurring on a small spatial scale (discrete auroral arcs and PJ/SAID events) and magnetospheric processes occurring on a larger spatial scale (collapse shear through magnetospheric boundary layers, substorms). The project objectives may be summarised as follows:
- What are the generators feeding electrical circuits involving currents aligned along the magnetic field lines (FAC: Field-Aligned Currents)?
- What can we learn from these current systems when they are connected to a load and the latter is identified with auroral arcs (Roth et al., 1993) or subauroral ion drift (De Keyser, 1999)?
- What are the physics-imposed relationships between the generators and their load?
- Do the processes associated with Alfven waves determine the auroral field lines such that quasi static potentials are aligned therewith?
