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Preliminary Results from the CASCADES 2 Sounding Rocket. Paul Kintner , Eric Lundberg, Cornell U. Kristina Lynch, Meghan Mella , Dartmouth C. Nicolay Ivchencko , Hanna Dahlgren, RIT Marc Lessard , UNH Hans Stenbaek -Nielsen, UAF-GI. CASCADES 2 Overview.
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Preliminary Results from the CASCADES 2 Sounding Rocket Paul Kintner, Eric Lundberg, Cornell U. Kristina Lynch, Meghan Mella, Dartmouth C. Nicolay Ivchencko, Hanna Dahlgren, RIT Marc Lessard, UNH Hans Stenbaek-Nielsen, UAF-GI
CASCADES 2 Overview • Launched 20 March 2009 at 11:04:00 UT • Apogee of 564 km over north coast of Alaska • Interesting physics 468-436 km altitude downleg at about 11:14:00 UT (600 sec) • Conditions • Poleward boundary intensification • Rayed auroral arc • Cold thermosphere and lowered ionosphere (solar min.) • Preliminary results • Large Alfvénic electric fields (± 100 mV/m) • Dispersed downward electron signatures • Ion acceleration appearing as downward conic
Full flight Total Electric Field
-40 -20 0 20 40 energy [eV] 2 20 200 -180 -90 0 90 180 pitch angle -40 -20 0 20 40 v-perp [km/sec] Maxwellian, 3eV Tpar, 30eV Tperp, -20 km/sec downward shift Same, plotted as JE on pitch-energy axes
energy [eV] 2 20 200 energy [eV] 2 20 200 -180 -90 0 90 180 pitch angle -180 -90 0 90 180 pitch angle
Science Questions to Investigate • Does dynamic aurora move with respect to the background ionosphere? How much? Consequences? • What is the spatial as compared to temporal variation of auroral parameters like B and E? What does this mean for theories of energy transfer? • Alfven waves carry disturbances and changes down to and through the auroral zone producing structured aurora. Are these structures significant for magnetosphere/ionosphere coupling? Do direct observations of these motions validate theories and models?
Science Questions to Investigate • Does dynamic aurora move with respect to the background ionosphere? How much? Does it matter? • What is the spatial as compared to temporal variation of auroral parameters like B and E? What does this mean for theories of energy transfer? • Alfven waves carry disturbances and changes down to and through the auroral zone, giving us structured and dancing aurora. Are these structures significant for magnetosphere/ ionosphere coupling? Do direct observations of these motions validate theories and models?
Science Questions to Investigate • Are the Alfven waves related to the heated ion distribution? Do density irregularities nonlinearly move Alfven waves to shorter transverse wave lengths which cause transverse ion acceleration? • What electric field accelerates both electrons and ions downward? Times scales likely matter. Does downward ion acceleration increase the ion transverse energy