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We analyze two ion scale dipolarization fronts associated with field-aligned currents detected by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission during a large substorm on 10 August 2016. The first event corresponds to a fast dawnward flow with an antiparallel current and could be generated by the wake of a previous fast earthward flow. It is associated with intense lower hybrid drift waves detected at the front and propagating dawnward with a perpendicular phase speed close to the electric drift and the ion thermal velocity. The second event corresponds to a flow reversal: from southwward/dawnward to northward/duskward associated with a parallel current consistent with a brief expansion of the plasma sheet before the front crossing and with a smaller lower hybrid drift wave activity. Electromagnetic electron phase-space holes are detected near these low-frequency drift waves during both events. The drift waves could accelerate electrons parallel to the magnetic field and produce the parallel electron drift needed to generate the electron holes. Yet we cannot rule out the possibility that the drift waves are produced by the antiparallel current associated with the fast flows, leaving the source for the electron holes unexplained.

The aurorae are dynamic, luminous displays that grace the night skies of Earth's high latitude regions. The solar wind emanating from the Sun is their ultimate energy source, but the chain of plasma physical processes leading to auroral displays is complex. The special conditions at the interface between the solar wind-driven magnetosphere and the ionospheric environment at the top of Earth's atmosphere play a central role. In this Auroral Acceleration Region (AAR) persistent electric fields directed along the magnetic field accelerate magnetospheric electrons to the high energies needed to excite luminosity when they hit the atmosphere. The "ideal magnetohydrodynamics" description of space plasmas which is useful in much of the magnetosphere cannot be used to understand the AAR. The AAR has been studied by a small number of single spacecraft missions which revealed an environment rich in wave-particle interactions, plasma turbulence, and nonlinear acceleration processes, acting on a variety of spatio-temporal scales. The pioneering 4-spacecraft Cluster magnetospheric research mission is now fortuitously visiting the AAR, but its particle instruments are too slow to allow resolve many of the key plasma physics phenomena. The Alfv,n concept is designed specifically to take the next step in studying the aurora, by making the crucial high-time resolution, multi-scale measurements in the AAR, needed to address the key science questions of auroral plasma physics. The new knowledge that the mission will produce will find application in studies of the Sun, the processes that accelerate the solar wind and that produce aurora on other planets.

The thermal component of Mercury's electron population has never been measured. One scientific objective of the Plasma Wave Investigation consortium, PWI, is to determine the influence of the thermal plasma upon the formation and dynamics of the planetary magnetosphere, as a function of solar activity. The Active Measurement of Mercury's Plasma experiment, AM(2)p, has been proposed as part of PWI, to monitor the density and temperature of the thermal electron population, during the whole mission of the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter of BepiColombo. These two physical parameters will be deduced from the measurements of the self- and mutual-impedances of the MEFISTO (Mercury Electric Field In Situ Tool) double-sphere antenna, in a frequency range comprising the expected plasma frequency. The in situ measurement of the antenna impedance is also essential for calibrating the electric antenna which measures the natural waves; it will allow, in particular, the effective length of the antenna to be calculated as a function of frequency and plasma conditions. The purpose of this paper is to define the scientific objectives of AM(2)p, to explain the principle of the measurement, to describe the electronic device, and to show the ability of AM 2p to make reliable and accurate measurements of the thermal plasma density and temperature in the Hermean magnetosphere, as well as in the solar wind at heliocentric distances of 0.31-0.47 AU. The potential performance of this instrument has been evaluated using both an analytical approach and numerical simulations., QC 20110816QC 20150914

Electron-acoustic solitons exist in a two electron temperature plasma (with "cold" and "hot" electrons) and take the form of negative electrostatic potential pulses. They develop on a spatial scale of a few Debye lengths and propagate at the electron-acou, Addresses: Berthomier M, Swedish Inst Space Phys, Uppsala, Sweden. Swedish Inst Space Phys, Uppsala, Sweden. Ctr Etud Environm Terr & Planetaires, St Maur Des Fosses, France.

Electron angular distributions peaked at oblique angles to the magnetic field, electron conics, are frequently found in the Viking data at all magnetic local times, but with a maximum in the dusk sector. Several types of electron conics have been observed

Electron angular distributions peaked at oblique angles to the magnetic field, electron conics, are frequently found in the Viking data at all magnetic local times, but with a maximum in the dusk sector. Several types of electron conics have been observed, Addresses: Eliasson L, SWEDISH INST SPACE PHYS, BOX 812, S-98128 KIRUNA, SWEDEN. SWEDISH INST SPACE PHYS, UMEA DIV, S-90187 UMEA, SWEDEN. SWEDISH INST SPACE PHYS, UPPSALA DIV, S-75591 UPPSALA, SWEDEN. ROYAL INST TECHNOL, DEPT PLASMA PHYS, ALFVENLAB, S-100

We present heretofore unreported Viking observations of sporadic AKR bursts occurring well above the electron gyrofrequency together with spiky electrostatic emissions recorded just above the lower hybrid frequency, which exhibit a high degree of correlation in time. Both types of waves show simultaneous large amplitude variations of the order of 30-40 dB on time scales of a few hundreds of ms. Possible interpretations which may account for the observed correlation are investigated. Arguments are given which suggest that such events could be the signature of small scale non-linear structures in the plasma., QCR 20170123

The great number of bursts of broadband electrostatic noise (BEN) recorded during crossings of the dayside auroral zone by the Viking satellite enables their statistical study. The angular distribution of BEN with respect to the Earth's magnetic field is shown to be most likely isotropic, implying that it cannot consist of a unique linear plasma mode. Most of the bursts evidence a power law spectrum from the lower hybrid and ion plasma frequencies up to frequencies sometimes much higher than the electron plasma frequency, suggesting the presence of nonlinear effects. This is confirmed by their high intensity, and by the correlation between their amplitude and their frequency extension. BEN emissions are associated with ion conical distributions and with field-aligned electron beams. Although most of the power is concentrated at very low frequencies and around the lower hybrid and ion plasma frequencies, electron acoustic and beam mode waves may contribute to the high-frequency extension of BEN. The most intense BEN emissions are also correlated with sharp cold plasma density gradients and probably involve drift instabilities. Strong quasi-static perpendicular electric fields, which induce high-speed plasma flows, are also measured, so that the Doppler effect may contribute to the broadening of the BEN spectrum., QC 20170120

Simultaneous observations by the Viking and the DMSP F7 satellites have been used as input to a new method to obtain snapshot pictures of the auroral electrodynamics. In particular, an instantaneous global equipotential (or convection) pattern is calculated from distributions of field-aligned current and conductivity which are qualitatively consistent with the Viking auroral imager data and quantitatively consistent with magnetic field and particle data from the two satellites. This convection pattern, which is of the normal two-cell type, with a weak dusk cell and a strong, elongated crescent- shaped dawn cell (consistent with positive interplanetary magnetic field By), agrees well with the Viking electric field data. The model and the observed potential profiles agree nicely along the entire Viking orbit except for two intervals above acceleration regions where deviations are to be expected (due to parallel electric fields). These regions are characterized by U-shaped potential minima, upward field-aligned currents, upgoing ion beams, and relatively intense auroral kilometric radiation. Thus, the model results are consistent with the Viking observations not only on a global scale but also on the scale of the auroral acceleration regions. The corresponding convection in the magnetosphere is obtained from a simple projection to the equatorial plane of the deduced two-cell convection pattern. From this the location of the plasmapause is inferred. Aurora, Ionosphere, Reprints., Pub. in Jnl. of Geophysical Research, v93 nA12 p14,479-14, 492, 1 Dec 1988.