Electrostatic plasma waves and turbulence near auroral arcs

A cooperative experiment involving multiple probes was carried out in Greenland to measure the dynamic properties of the ionospheric plasma during active auroral conditions. The observations were made in a highly structured, low density plasma near a large scale convection shear at the edge of the auroral oval. Simultaneous observations by sounding rockets, incoherent scatter radar, and a high altitude satellite show good agreement between the various large scale plasma density and electric field measurements. The two sounding rockets involved in the experiment also made high resolution measurements as they simultaneously flew parallel to the oval along similar azimuths. A technique involving the simulation of a rocket flight through a medium of computer generated waves was used to directly compare the observations with theory.