Mesoscale neutral wind variability near auroral arcs measured using Fabry-Perot Interferometers

Abstract

Central to this study is the investigation of the mesoscale neutral wind behaviour near auroral arcs in the E region upper atmosphere using Fabry-Perot Interferometers (FPIs.. FPIs measure the Doppler shift and broadening of the green-line emission from which neutral velocities and temperatures can be derived respectively. The Scanning Doppler Imager (SDI. which is an enhanced FPI provides an all sky image of the neutral winds. SDIs are currently located in Alaska, Antarctica and Svalbard island. The study seeks to understand the E region neutral wind response to the driving force caused by the enhanced electric field upon the occurrence of an aurora. Subsequently, it is intended to study the ion-neutral coupling in the E layer focussing on energy dissipation in the form of Joule heating. This work expands from an initial single publication (Kosch et al., 2010. where Scanning Doppler Imager (SDI. data from Mawson, Antarctica, was used. The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN. data set is used as a source of ion velocities to estimate the electric field. - Abstract as displayed in the - Abstract booklet. The presentation on the day may differ from the - Abstract.