Fractal approach to description of the auroral structure

International audienceDuring the last two decades the fractal geometry has become a powerful approach to different physical problems. It is also found to be useful in image processing applications. A numerical quantity that characterizes the auroral structure would be important for auroral investigations. We try to obtain the quantity on the basis of the box-counting dimension of the line of equal intensity. In this paper we present results of some tests of our procedure by simulated images. The possibilities that the approach gives us for analysis of the auroral dynamics are discussed. The auroral dynamics during several typical auroral events are considered

Variations of auroral hydrogen emission near substorm onset

The results of coordinated optical ground-based observations of the auroral substorm on 26 March 2004 in the Kola Peninsula are described. Imaging spectrograph data with high spectral and temporal resolution recorded the Doppler profile of the Hα hydrogen emission; this allows us to estimate the average energy of precipitating protons and the emission intensity of the hydrogen Balmer line. Two different populations of precipitating protons were observed during an auroral substorm. The first of these is associated with a diffuse hydrogen emission that is usually observed in the evening sector of the auroral oval and located equatorward of the discrete electron arcs associated with substorm onset. The average energy of the protons during this precipitation was ~20–35 keV, and the energy flux was ~3x10<sup>–4</sup>Joule/m<sup>2</sup>s. The second proton population was observed 1–2min after the breakup during 4–5min of the expansion phase of substorm into the zone of bright, discrete auroral structures (N-S arcs). The average energy of the protons in this population was ~60 keV, and the energy flux was ~2.2x10<sup>–3</sup>Joule/m<sup>2</sup>s. The observed spatial structure of hydrogen emission is additional evidence of the higher energy of precipitated protons in the second population, relative to the protons in the diffuse aurora. We believe that the most probable mechanism of precipitation of the second population protons was pitch-angle scattering of particles due to non-adiabatic motion in the region of local dipolarization near the equatorial plane.<p><b>Keywords.</b> Auroral ionosphere; Particle precipitation; Storms and substorm

Scaling and a Fokker-Planck model for fluctuations in geomagnetic indices and comparison with solar wind as seen by Wind and ACE

The evolution of magnetospheric indices on temporal scales shorter than that of substorms is characterized by bursty, intermittent events that may arise from turbulence intrinsic to the magnetosphere or that may reflect solar wind-magnetosphere coupling. This leads to a generic problem of distinguishing between the features of the system and those of the driver. We quantify scaling properties of short-term (up to few hours) fluctuations in the geomagnetic indices AL and AU during solar minimum and maximum, along with the parameter that is a measure of the solar wind driver. We find that self-similar statistics provide a good approximation for the observed scaling properties of fluctuations in the geomagnetic indices, regardless of the solar activity level, and in the parameter at solar maximum. This self-similarity persists for fluctuations on timescales at least up to about 1–2 hours. The scaling exponent of AU index fluctuations show dependence on the solar cycle, and the trend follows that found in the scaling of fluctuations in . The values of their corresponding scaling exponents, however, are always distinct. Fluctuations in the AL index are insensitive to the solar cycle, as well as being distinct from those in the parameter. This approximate self-similar scaling leads to a Fokker-Planck model which, we show, captures the probability density function of fluctuations and provides a stochastic dynamical equation (Langevin equation) for time series of the geomagnetic indices

Physics of Auroral Phenomena

Abstract. Observations of aurora by highly sensitive television (TV) cameras and of riometric absorption by IRIS imaging riometer allows one to study spatialtemporal dynamics of precipitated particles

Frequencies of wave packets of whistler-mode chorus inside its source region: a case study

Whistler-mode chorus is a structured wave emission observed in the Earth's magnetosphere in a frequency range from a few hundreds of Hz to several kHz. We investigate wave packets of chorus using high-resolution measurements recorded by the WBD instrument on board the four Cluster spacecraft. A night-side chorus event observed during geomagnetically disturbed conditions is analyzed. We identify lower and upper frequencies for a large number of individual chorus wave packets inside the chorus source region. We investigate how these observations are related to the central position of the chorus source which has been previously estimated from the Poynting flux measurements. We observe typical frequency bandwidths of chorus of approximately 10% of the local electron cyclotron frequency. Observed time scales are around 0.1 s for the individual wave packets. Our results indicate a lower occurrence probability for lower frequencies in the vicinity of the central position of the source compared to measurements recorded closer to the outer boundaries of the source. This is in agreement with recent research based on the backward wave oscillator theory

Scale-free vortex cascade emerging from random forcing in a strongly coupled system

The notions of self-organised criticality (SOC) and turbulence are traditionally considered to be applicable to disjoint classes of phenomena. Nevertheless, scale-free burst statistics is a feature shared by turbulent as well as self-organised critical dynamics. It has also been suggested that another shared feature is universal non-gaussian probability density functions (PDFs) of global fluctuations. Here, we elucidate the unifying aspects through analysis of data from a laboratory dusty plasma monolayer. We compare analysis of experimental data with simulations of a two-dimensional (2D) many-body system, of 2D fluid turbulence, and a 2D SOC model, all subject to random forcing at small scales. The scale-free vortex cascade is apparent from structure functions as well as spatio-temporal avalanche analysis, the latter giving similar results for the experimental and all model systems studied. The experiment exhibits global fluctuation statistics consistent with a non-gaussian universal PDF, but the model systems yield this result only in a restricted range of forcing conditions

Observations of the relationship between frequency sweep rates of chorus wave packets and plasma density

International audience[1] Chorus emissions are generated by a nonlinear mechanism involving wave‐particle interactions with energetic electrons. Discrete chorus wave packets are narrowband tones usually rising (sometimes falling) in frequency. We investigate frequency sweep rates of chorus wave packets measured by the Wideband data (WBD) instrument onboard the Cluster spacecraft. In particular, we study the relationship between the sweep rates and the plasma density measured by the WHISPER active sounder. We have observed increasing values of the sweep rate for decreasing plasma densities. We have compared our results with results of simulations of triggered emissions as well as with estimates based on the backward wave oscillator model for chorus emissions. We demonstrate a reasonable agreement of our experimental results with theoretical ones. Citation: Macúšová, E., et al. (2010), Observations of the relationship between frequency sweep rates of chorus wave packets and plasma density

Proton transport model in the ionosphere .1. Multistream approach of the transport equations

The suprathermal particles, electrons and protons, coming from the magnetosphere and precipitating into the high-latitude atmosphere are an energy source of the Earth's ionosphere. They interact with ambient thermal gas through inelastic and elastic collisions. The physical quantities perturbed by these precipitations, such as the heating rate, the electron production rate, or the emission intensities, can be provided in solving the kinetic stationary Boltzmann equation. This equation yields particle fluxes as a function of altitude, energy, and pitch angle. While this equation has been solved through different ways for the electron transport and fully tested, the proton transport is more complicated. Because of charge-changing reactions, the latter is a set of two-coupled transport equations that must be solved: one for protons and the other for H atoms. We present here a new approach that solves the multistream proton/hydrogen transport equations encompassing the collision angular redistributions and the magnetic mirroring effect. In order to validate our model we discuss the energy conservation and we compare with another model under the same inputs and with rocket observations. The influence of the angular redistributions is discussed in a forthcoming paper

A Quasi-Model-Independent Search for New Physics at Large Transverse Momentum

We apply a quasi-model-independent strategy ("Sleuth") to search for new high p_T physics in approximately 100 pb^-1 of ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV collected by the DZero experiment during 1992-1996 at the Fermilab Tevatron. Over thirty-two e mu X, W+jets-like, Z+jets-like, and 3(lepton/photon)X exclusive final states are systematically analyzed for hints of physics beyond the standard model. Simultaneous sensitivity to a variety of models predicting new phenomena at the electroweak scale is demonstrated by testing the method on a particular signature in each set of final states. No evidence of new high p_T physics is observed in the course of this search, and we find that 89% of an ensemble of hypothetical similar experimental runs would have produced a final state with a candidate signal more interesting than the most interesting observed in these data.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures. Submitted to Physical Review