Project overview
The Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere and magenetosphere together make up a complex plasma physics laboratory. The most spectacular manifestation fo the interaction between these plasma regions is the visible aurora. It is created when accelerated beams of electrons and protons collide with the atoms and molecules of the upper atmosphere. The acceleration is known to be caused by electric fields parallel to the geomagnetic field, as well as by waves known as Alfven waves. Such electirc fields are needed to maintain the magnetic field-aligned currents when the charge carriers are scarce. The aurora is often highly structured in space, forming thin filaments within the broader regions of luminosity, and is very dynamic. This structuring in space and time has been difficult to characterise from in-situ observations using rockets and satellites, because of the spatial/temporal ambiguity of single point measurements. However, the dynamics of the structuring and the physics that is involved is important to understand. The presence of fine structure can change the large-scale properties of the ionosphere-magnetosphere system, which is used for quantitative modelling of the geospace environment.
Research outputs
Hanna Dahlgren, Betty S. Lanchester, Nickolay Ivchenko & Daniel K. Whiter,
2017, Annales Geophysicae, 35, 493-503
Type: article
J.D. Spry, O. Jokiaho, B.S. Lanchester & D.K. Whiter,
2014, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 107, 8-11
Type: article
H. Dahlgren, N. Ivchenko, B.S. Lanchester, M. Ashrafi, D. Whiter, G. Marklund & J. Sullivan,
2009, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 71(2), 228-238
Type: article
D.K. Whiter, B.S. Lanchester, B. Gustavsson, N. Ivchenko, J.M. Sullivan & H. Dahlgren,
2008, Geophysical Research Letters, 35(23), L23103
DOI: 10.1029/2008GL036134
Type: article