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We present synoptic observations of the 21 December 2006 substorm event by the THEMIS ground-based All-Sky-Imagers, the ISUAL CCD Imager aboard the FORMOSAT-2 satellite, the geosynchronous satellites and the ground-based magnetometers, and discuss the implication of the observations. There are three subsequent arc breakups with time separation of

One of the possible candidates which modifies the ionosphere before large earthquake is electric field. We presume that the electric field associated with large earthquakes is generated in the ionosphere dynamo region (100–120 km). This paper tries to identify the evidence of the contribution of the neutral atmosphere in the dynamo region. The relationship between the critical frequency at the F2 peak (foF2) and the height profile of the neutral atmosphere temperature was studied for two large earthquakes: Wenchuan, 2008 and Pingtung Doublet, 2006. It is found that the wave amplitude of the vertical wavelength 20–30 km which is usually superposed on the height profile of the neutral atmosphere temperature enhances when the foF2 increases. The correlation between the wave amplitude and foF2 is found better along a longitudinal direction than along latitude direction.

As one of the tasks to find the energy source(s) of thermal electrons, which elevate(s) electron temperature higher than neutral temperature in the lower ionosphere E-region, energy distribution function of thermal electron was measured with a sounding rocket at the heights of 93–131 km by the applying second harmonic method. The energy distribution function showed a clear hump at the energy of ~0.4 eV. In order to find the reason of the hump, we conducted laboratory experiment. We studied difference of the energy distribution functions of electrons in thermal energy range, which were measured with and without EUV radiation to plasma of N2/Ar and N2/O2 gas mixture respectively. For N2/Ar gas mixture plasma, the hump is not clearly identified in the energy distribution of thermal electrons. On the other hand for N2/O2 gas mixture, which contains vibrationally excited N2, a clear hump is found when irradiated by EUV. The laboratory experiment seems to suggest that the hump is produced as a result of interaction between vibrationally excited N2 and thermal electrons, and this interaction is the most probable heating source for the electrons of thermal energy range in the lower E-region. It is also suggested that energy distribution of the electrons in high energy part may not be Maxwellian, and DC probe measures the electrons which are non Maxwellian, and therefore "electron temperature" is calculated higher.

Cluster measurements in the magnetosheath with spacecraft separations of 2000 km indicate that magnetic pulsations interpreted as mirror mode structures are not frozen in plasma flow, but do propagate with speeds of up to ~50 km/s. Properties of these pulsations are shown to be consistent with propagating slow magnetosonic solitons. By using nonlinear two fluid theory we demonstrate that the well known classical mirror instability condition corresponds to a small subset in a continuum of exponentially varying solutions. With the measured plasma moments we have determined parameters of the polybaric pressure model in the region of occurrence of mirror type structures and applied it to numerical modelling of these structures. In individual cases we obtain excellent agreement between observed mirror mode structures and numerical solutions for magnetosonic solitons.

The knowledge of plasma pressure is essential for many physics applications in the magnetosphere, such as computing magnetospheric currents and deriving mag-netosphere-ionosphere coupling. A thorough knowledge of the 3-D pressure distribution has, however, eluded the community, as most in situ pressure observations are either in the ionosphere or the equatorial region of the magnetosphere. With the assumption of pressure isotropy there have been attempts to obtain the pressure at different locations,by either (a) mapping observed data (e.g. in the ionosphere) along the field lines of an empirical magnetospheric field model, or (b) computing a pressure profile in the equatorial plane (in 2-D) or along the Sun-Earth axis (in 1-D) that is in force balance with the magnetic stresses of an empirical model. However, the pressure distributions obtained through these methods are not in force balance with the empirical magnetic field at all locations. In order to find a global 3-D plasma pressure distribution in force balance with the magnetospheric magnetic field, we have developed the MAG-3-D code that solves the 3-D force balance equation computationally. Our calculation is performed in a flux coordinate system in which the magnetic field is expressed in terms of Euler potentials as . The pressure distribution, , is prescribed in the equatorial plane and is based on satellite measurements. In addition, computational boundary conditions for ψ surfaces are imposed using empirical field models. Our results provide 3-D distributions of magnetic field, plasma pressure, as well as parallel and transverse currents for both quiet-time and disturbed magnetospheric conditions. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetospheric configuration and dynamics; magnetotail; plasma sheet)

The electrode contamination in electrostatic analyzers such as Langmuir probes and retarding potential analyzers (RPA) is a serious problem for space measurements. The contamination layer acts as extra capacitance and resistance and leads to distortion in the measured I-V curve, which leads to erroneous measurement results. There are two main effects of the contamination layer: one is the impedance effect and the other is the charge attachment and accumulation due to the capacitance. The impedance effect can be reduced or eliminated by choosing the proper sweeping frequency. However, for RPA the charge accumulation effect becomes serious because the capacitance of the contamination layer is much larger than that of the Langmuir probe of similar dimension. The charge accumulation on the retarding potential grid causes the effective potential, that ions experience, to be changed from the applied voltage. Then, the number of ions that can pass through the retarding potential grid to reach the collector and, thus, the measured ion current are changed. This effect causes the measured ion drift velocity and ion temperature to be changed from the actual values. The error caused by the RPA electrode contamination is expected to be significant for sounding rocket measurements with low rocket velocity (1-2 km/s) and low ion temperature of 200-300 K in the height range of 100-300 km. In this paper we discuss the effects associated with the RPA contaminated electrodes based on theoretical analysis and experiments performed in a space plasma operation chamber. Finally, the development of a contamination-free RPA for sounding rocket missions is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing Hamiltonian mechanics, the transport of fusion born alpha particles in the presence of driftwave turbulence is investigated. An analytical turbulence model based on the toroidal drift eigenmode is employed for guiding center orbit-following calculations. It is shown that high energy particles are less susceptible to driftwave turbulence. The passing particle transport is due to overlapping of guiding center electric islands whose widths are inversely proportional to the square root of the parallel velocity. For trapped particles, through a coordinate transformation from the poloidal angle and the parallel velocity to the action-angle variables, the resonance between the bounce motion and the toroidal precession motion, which can cause secondary island formation in the phase space, is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reversed shear Alfvén eigenmodes in the non-circular triangularity induced Alfvén eigenmode frequency range are observed during the current ramp-up phase in JET discharges. Ideal magnetohydrodynamical calculations are able to reproduce the observed Alfvén eigenmode spectra accurately. It was found that these modes come into existence because of the plasma elongation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]