Formation of the small-scale structure of auroral electron precipitations

Abstract

This paper is aimed at physical causes of the small-scale transverse structure in the flows of auroral electrons, generating the corresponding small-scale structure of discrete auroras. The parallel electric field existing in the lower part of the auroral magnetosphere, in the auroral cavity region, in the presence of a strong upward field-aligned current, accelerates magnetospheric electrons to energies of ∼1−10 keV. The flow of these particles while maintaining the high density of the field-aligned current, produces a current-driven instability, which generates Alfvénic turbulence at short perpendicular wavelengths ≤1 km. These short-wavelength inertial Alfvén disturbances possess a nonzero parallell electric field, which modulates the electron flow velocity. The modulation occurring at high altitudes ≥104 km leads to a nonlinear effect of formation of strong density peaks at low altitudes of electron precipitation. The transverse, horizontal scales of the corresponding electron flow structure coincide with the small scales of the Alfvénic turbulence; and this structuring leads to non-uniformities in the auroral luminosity on the same scales, i.e., to small-scale structure of discrete auroras.