Ohmic heating as evidence for strong field-aligned currents in filamentary aurora

A large increase in electron temperature measured in filamentary aurora with the European incoherent scatter radar has been modeled with a one‐dimensional electron transport and ion chemistry code. To account for the observed changes in electron temperature, while also reproducing the measured E reg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research 2001-02, Vol.106 (A2), p.1785-1794
Main Authors: Lanchester, B. S., Rees, M. H., Lummerzheim, D., Otto, A., Sedgemore‐Schulthess, K. J. F., Zhu, H., McCrea, I. W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Airglow. Aurora
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Physics of the high neutral atmosphere
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Summary:A large increase in electron temperature measured in filamentary aurora with the European incoherent scatter radar has been modeled with a one‐dimensional electron transport and ion chemistry code. To account for the observed changes in electron temperature, while also reproducing the measured E region electron density profiles, a source of electron heating is required in addition to local heating from energy degradation of the precipitating electrons. We show that ohmic heating in a strong field‐aligned current can account for the required heat source.
ISSN:0148-0227
2156-2202
DOI:10.1029/1999JA000292