The origin of ultrafast substorm auroras
Date: 06 Sep 2011 A magnetic reconnection event occurs far out in the magnetotail, at a distance of around 125 000 - 200 000 km. Energy from this event is transported by kinetic Alfvén waves (KAW) - which carry electrons - towards Earth at speeds of several thousand kilometres per second. These KAW can reach Earth quickly enough, and carry sufficient energy, to produce intense auroras. In reality, the reconnection process is persistent and less bursty, continuously emitting energy via the KAWs to the aurora.
Last Update: 10 Apr 2013
|
- Missions
- Show All Missions
- Mission Home
- Summary
- Fact Sheet
- Objectives
- Mission Team
- Orbit View
- Background Science
- Earth's Magnetic Field
- Plasma Regions
- Solar Wind
- Energetic Particles
- Space Weather
- Science Results
- Highlights
- Refereed Publications
-
Spacecraft…
-
Mission Operations…
- Science Operations
- Science Operations
- Guest Investigator Operations
- JSOC
- CSDS
- Cluster Active Archive
- Resources
- News Archive
- Multimedia Gallery
- Publication Archive
- Calendar of Events
- Services
- Contact Us
- Subscribe
- Terms and Conditions
