HR: 16:40h
AN: SM24A-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Earth{'}s Polar Magnetosphere and Aurora
AU: * Lotko, W
EM: wlotko@dartmouth.edu
AF: Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AB: High-latitude convection, magnetic field-aligned currents and particle precipitation are powered at Earth primarily by the dynamo action of the solar wind flowing across polar geomagnetic field lines. The resulting auroral luminosity provides a sensitive diagnostic of large-scale magnetospheric dynamics and structure -- features that are specific to magnetospheric processes driven by a solar wind-magnetosphere interation. At the same time, the physical processes that enable aurora, e.g., the formation of parallel electric fields and auroral particle acceleration, time-variable transmission of electromagnetic power along magnetic field lines by Alfv{\'e}n waves, and dynamic structuring of aurora resulting from impedance mismatch between the magnetospheric dynamo and ionospheric load, do not necessarily depend on the nature of either the dynamo or the load. This paper will review the large-scale electrodynamics of the terrestrial polar magnetosphere and the plasma physics and magnetohydrodynamics that enable high-latitude terrestrial aurora. It will also attempt to distinguish between terrestrial-specific processes and ones that are also likely to be operative in the Jovian polar magnetosphere and aurora.
DE: 2407 Auroral ionosphere (2704)
DE: 2431 Ionosphere/magnetosphere interactions (2736)
DE: 2704 Auroral phenomena (2407)
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting