Polar and auroral phenomena: A review of U.S. progress during 1979–1982

Abstract

The quadrennium 1979–1982 has been a highly active time in the field of polar and auroral research, with nearly 400 research papers and thirty general or topical review papers written by U.S. authors. This paper highlights progress in understanding auroral morphology, precipitating particle fluxes, the spectra and sources of upward‐flowing particles, large‐scale Birkeland currents, and theoretical and experimental advances in auroral‐scale electrodynamics. Global electrodynamics, active experiments, plasma waves, and auroral aeronomy, although certainly ‘polar and auroral phenomena,’ are discussed in other papers in this issue.