Acceleration of Auroral Particles by Magnetic Field-Aligned Electric Fields

摘要

Measurements on the S3-3 and Swedish Viking satellites appear to show that at least a large fraction of magnetic field-aligned potential drops are made up of multiple double layers. Solitons and double layers in U-shaped potential structures give rise to spikey electric fields also perpendicular to the magnetic field in agreement with satellite measurements. The large scale potential structures associated with inverted V-events are built up of many similar short-lived structures on a small scale. Viking measurements indicate that electric fields parallel to the magnetic field are almost always directed upward.