Polarisation in the auroral red line during coordinated EISCAT Svalbard Radar/optical experiments

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Authors
Barthelemy, M.
Lilensten, J.
Pitout, F.
Wedlund, C.S.
Thissen, R.
Lorentzen, D.
Sigernes, F.
Moen, J.
Gronoff, G.
McCrea, I.
Rothkael, H.
Menager, H.
Aruliah, A.
Discipline
Earth and related Environmental sciences
Subject
airglow
aurora
geomagnetic field
magnetic field
polarization
satellite data
theoretical study
thermosphere
Audience
Scientific
Date
2011Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
The polarisation of the atomic oxygen red line in the Earth's thermosphere is observed in different configurations with respect to the magnetic field line at high latitude during several coordinated Incoherent Scatter radar/optical experiment campaigns. When pointing northward with a line-of-sight nearly perpendicular to the magnetic field, we show that, as expected, the polarisation is due to precipitated electrons with characteristic energies of a few hundreds of electron Volts. When pointing toward the zenith or southward with a line-of-sight more parallel to the magnetic field, we show that the polarisation practically disappears. This confirms experimentally the predictions deduced from the recent discovery of the red line polarisation. We show that the polarisation direction is parallel to the magnetic field line during geomagnetic activity intensification and that these results are in agreement with theoretical work.
Citation
Barthelemy, M.; Lilensten, J.; Pitout, F.; Wedlund, C.S.; Thissen, R.; Lorentzen, D.; Sigernes, F.; Moen, J.; Gronoff, G.; McCrea, I.; Rothkael, H.; Menager, H.; Aruliah, A. (2011). Polarisation in the auroral red line during coordinated EISCAT Svalbard Radar/optical experiments. , Annales Geophysicae, Vol. 29, Issue 6, 1101-1112, DOI: 10.5194/angeo-29-1101-2011.Identifiers
scopus: 2-s2.0-79959754091
Type
Article
Peer-Review
Yes
Language
eng