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Small Scale Alfvénic Structure in the Aurora

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Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive review of dispersive Alfvén waves in space and laboratory plasmas. We start with linear properties of Alfvén waves and show how the inclusion of ion gyroradius, parallel electron inertia, and finite frequency effects modify the Alfvén wave properties. Detailed discussions of inertial and kinetic Alfvén waves and their polarizations as well as their relations to drift Alfvén waves are presented. Up to date observations of waves and field parameters deduced from the measurements by Freja, Fast, and other spacecraft are summarized. We also present laboratory measurements of dispersive Alfvén waves, that are of most interest to auroral physics. Electron acceleration by Alfvén waves and possible connections of dispersive Alfvén waves with ionospheric-magnetospheric resonator and global field-line resonances are also reviewed. Theoretical efforts are directed on studies of Alfvén resonance cones, generation of dispersive Alfvén waves, as well their nonlinear interactions with the background plasma and self-interaction. Such topics as the dispersive Alfvén wave ponderomotive force, density cavitation, wave modulation/filamentation, and Alfvén wave self-focusing are reviewed. The nonlinear dispersive Alfvén wave studies also include the formation of vortices and their dynamics as well as chaos in Alfvén wave turbulence. Finally, we present a rigorous evaluation of theoretical and experimental investigations and point out applications and future perspectives of auroral Alfvén wave physics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden

    K. Stasiewicz & J.-E. Wahlund

  2. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, U.S.A.

    P. Bellan

  3. Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.

    C. Chaston

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, U.S.A.

    C. Kletzing

  5. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, U.S.A.

    R. Lysak

  6. Physics Department, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.

    J. Maggs

  7. Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow, Russia

    O. Pokhotelov

  8. School of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, U.S.A.

    C. Seyler

  9. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany

    P. Shukla

  10. Department of Plasma Physics, Umeå  University, Sweden

    L. Stenflo

  11. Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, U.S.A.

    A. Streltsov

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Stasiewicz, K., Bellan, P., Chaston, C. et al. Small Scale Alfvénic Structure in the Aurora. Space Science Reviews 92, 423–533 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005207202143

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