Cascades2: Quantifying Shears in the Auroral Electric Field
Abstract
On March, 20th 2009 the Cascades2 sounding rocket was launched from Poker Flat Alaska reaching an apogee of 564km. Two electric/magnetic field subpayloads were ejected at a high velocity parallel to the local magnetic field and included a suite of 3-axis fluxgate magnetometers and crossed dipole electric field antennas with receivers from DC to HF. On the downleg, at altitudes near ~450km, the array of Cascades2 payloads encountered a Poleward Boundary Intensification (PBI) and strong Alfvenic activity with perturbations in the DC electric field of >200mV/m. In this region the two electric field subpayloads were separated by ~6km with a 5 degree angle between their separation vector and the local magnetic field. Initial analysis of the despun DC electric field data differences between payloads of 20 mV/m that are primarily oriented in the East-West direction which at our separation distance of 6km correspond to shears of .0033 mV/m^2. Coupling of these shears to other wave modes is investigated and their role as a possible driver of ion heating is discussed.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFMSM41B1705O
- Keywords:
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- 2407 IONOSPHERE / Auroral ionosphere;
- 2471 IONOSPHERE / Plasma waves and instabilities;
- 2481 IONOSPHERE / Topside ionosphere;
- 7845 SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS / Particle acceleration