Rocket-based measurement of electrojet activity in the vicinity of a large scale auroral loop

[摘要] On March 14, 1974, an instrumented sounding rocket carrying a cesium vapor vector magnetometer was launched from Poker Flat, Alaska, over a stable auroral form which had an intensity of approximately 1 kR in 5577A. The experiment took place just before local breakup as the payload passed over the equatorward portion of an auroral loop that was open to the West. Measurements of the perturbation in the magnetic field along the flight path are used to infer the current flow in the vicinity of the auroral arc. Although problems with the data have left the field-aligned current flow indeterminate, the results indicate a weak electrojet system flowing to the South of the visual arc. This model is then correlated with groundbased data in an attempt to determine regional electrojet activity. Results imply that the flight took place very near the Harang discontinuity.

[发布机构] Rice University