Throat aurora: The ionospheric signature of magnetosheath particles penetrating into the magnetosphere
Abstract
Throat aurora is suggested to be generated during magnetospheric cold plasma flowing into the magnetopause reconnection site and to be the ionospheric signature of the newly opened flux from reconnection. By examining simultaneous low‐altitude satellites and ground observations, we confirm that the throat auroras are associated with low‐energy electron and ion precipitation of magnetosheath type and thus provide the first evidence that they occur along open magnetic field lines. Additionally, the observations have important possible implications: (1) solar wind particles can penetrate deep into the magnetosphere and may make significant contributions to the low‐energy plasmas often observed in the dayside outer magnetosphere and (2) localized shapes of the magnetopause and the ionospheric open‐closed field line boundary may be substantially changed, during generation of the throat aurora.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 05, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1002/2016gl068181
Entities
People
- Desheng Han
- Hongqiao Hu
- Huigen Yang
- L. R. Lyons
- Yukitoshi Nishimura
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Science Foundation
- University of California, Los Angeles