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Auroral Kilometric Radiation as a Consequence of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling

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Magnetospheric Plasma Physics: The Impact of Jim Dungey’s Research

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings ((ASSSP,volume 41))

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Abstract

Prof. Jim Dungey’s Masters degree student Stephen Knight published a paper (Planet. Space Sci. 21:741–750, 1973) that explained how auroral flux tubes could carry enhanced upward currents through the acceleration of magnetospheric electrons by a parallel electric field. While the model was developed to explain field-aligned currents, the model was later found to be essential in understanding the generation of Auroral kilometric radiation (AKR), which is an intense radio emission generated above Earth’s auroral zone. AKR is generated in the region of upward field-aligned current, and the field-aligned currents are required in order to transmit the stresses imposed by magnetospheric convection to the ionosphere. The accelerating potential, in concert with the magnetic mirror force, introduces perpendicular gradients in the electron distribution function, which has a horseshoe-like appearance. This horseshoe distribution is unstable to X-mode waves near the electron gyro-frequency, thereby generating AKR. Given the ubiquity of AKR-like radio emissions, it is likely that these emissions are a manifestation of coupling between different plasmas through field-aligned currents that require accelerating potentials to provide the current. Many of these emissions have fine structure, and this fine structure provides clues as to microphysical processes occurring in the source region of the emission.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the THEMIS project, Principal Investigator V. Angelopoulos, through NASA contract NAS5-02099.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Robert J. Strangeway

  2. Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Robert J. Strangeway

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  1. Robert J. Strangeway
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Correspondence to Robert J. Strangeway .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Stanley W. H. Cowley FRS

  2. Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

    David Southwood

  3. St. Edmund's College, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Simon Mitton

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Strangeway, R.J. (2015). Auroral Kilometric Radiation as a Consequence of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling. In: Cowley FRS, S., Southwood, D., Mitton, S. (eds) Magnetospheric Plasma Physics: The Impact of Jim Dungey’s Research. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 41. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18359-6_4

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