HR: 0800h
AN: SM51B-0365    [Abstracts]
TI: The Cusp Aurora in the Conjugate Hemispheres of the Earth
AU: * Ostgaard, N
EM: Nikolai.Ostgaard@ift.uib.no
AF: Department of Physics and Technology,University of Bergen, Allegt 55, Bergen, N5007 Norway
AU: Mende, S B
EM: mende@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Frey, H U
EM: hfrey@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Immel, T J
EM: immel@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Sigwarth, J B
EM: john.b.sigwarth@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Electrodynamics Branch, Code 696, Building 21, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Frank, L A
EM: louis-frank@uiowa.edu
AF: Department of physics and astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, IA 52242-1479 United States
AB: In this paper we examine the Earth's cusp aurora associated with high latitude lobe reconnection. The cusp aurora is observed simultanously in both the southern and northern hemispheres in similar wavelengths by the cameras on IMAGE and Polar satellites. Due to the high solar wind pressure both the proton and electron aurorae are fairly bright, dominated by ~8 keV protons and 0.5-1 keV electrons. As predicted by theory, the longitudinal asymmetric location of the cusp aurora is strongly controlled by the IMF By component. The southern cusp aurora is observed several degrees poleward of the northern cusp aurora and can be attributed to either a tilt effect or an IMF Bx effect. These rare observations also confirm our earlier findings that theta aurora can be a non-conjugate phenomenon controlled by the IMF Bx component.
DE: 2704 Auroral phenomena (2407)
DE: 2724 Magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting