Dayside Red Auroras at Very High latitudes: The Importance of Thermal Excitation

Authors

Vincent B. Wickwar, Utah State UniversityFollow
W Kofman

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Geophysical Research Letters

Volume

11

Issue

9

Publication Date

1984

First Page

923

Last Page

926

Abstract

Extensive radar observations have been made from Sondrestrom of the F region in the daytime sector between 70 and 79° Λ. Regions of enhanced electron temperature and electron density are found in close association with the velocity reversal in the morning and afternoon convection cells. From the radar measurements, calculations are made of the contributions to the atomic oxygen emission at 6300A from dissociative recombination and thermal excitation. The latter mechanism, in particular, in the enhancement regions gives rise to intensities that are comparable to those observed at very high latitudes during the past decade.

Comments

Published by the American Geophysical Union in Geophysical Research Letters. Publisher PDF is available for download through link above.

Recommended Citation

Wickwar, V. B., and W. Kofman (1984), Dayside red auroras at very high latitudes: The importance of thermal excitation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 11(9), 923–926, doi:10.1029/GL011i009p00923.