Real‐time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere
Abstract
Ionization of the Earth's atmosphere by sunlight forms a complex, multilayered plasma environment within the Earth's magnetosphere, the innermost layers being the ionosphere and plasmasphere. The plasmasphere is believed to be embedded with cylindrical density structures (ducts) aligned along the Earth's magnetic field, but direct evidence for these remains scarce. Here we report the first direct wide‐angle observation of an extensive array of field‐aligned ducts bridging the upper ionosphere and inner plasmasphere, using a novel ground‐based imaging technique. We establish their heights and motions by feature tracking and parallax analysis. The structures are strikingly organized, appearing as regularly spaced, alternating tubes of overdensities and underdensities strongly aligned with the Earth's magnetic field. These findings represent the first direct visual evidence for the existence of such structures.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 25, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1002/2015gl063699
Entities
People
- A. A. Deshpande
- A. Williams
- André R. Offringa
- B. J. Hazelton
- B. M. Gaensler
- Cathryn M. Trott
- Cleo Loi
- Colin J. Lonsdale
- Colin L. Waters
- Cyril L. Williams
- D. A. Mitchell
- David L. Kaplan
- Divya Oberoi
- Emil Lenc
- Eric R. Morgan
- F. Briggs
- Frederick W. Menk
- Gregorio Bernardi
- Iver H. Cairns
- J. D. Bowman
- John Morgan
- K. S. Srivani
- L. J. Greenhill
- Lu Feng
- M. F. Morales
- Martin E. Bell
- Melanie Johnston-Hollitt
- N. Udaya Shankar
- Natasha Hurley‐walker
- Paul J. Hancock
- Philip J. Erickson
- R. B. Wayth
- R. J. Cappallo
- R. L. Webster
- R. Subrahmanyan
- Ronald D. Ekers
- S. J. Tingay
- S. M. Ord
- S. R. Mcwhirter
- T. Prabu
- Tara Murphy
Organizations
- ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Arizona State University
- Astronomy Australia Limited
- Australia-India Strategic Research Fund
- Australian National University
- Australian Research Council
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- Curtin University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science
- National Centre for Radio Astrophysics
- National Science Foundation
- Raman Research Institute
- Rhodes University
- Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
- Square Kilometre Array
- University of Melbourne
- University of Newcastle
- University of Sydney
- University of Toronto
- University of Washington
- University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
- Victoria University of Wellington