Nightside magnetospheric processes (dynamics) directly reflect to auroral morphology and type. By investing type of auroras and the auroral morphological changes, we can expect to understand what physical processes would take place in the magnetotail. Under northward Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) conditions, transpolar arcs (TPAs) and aurora spiral can be observed. A source of TPA is considered as field-aligned currents induced by the plasma flow shear (including the plasma flow vortices) between the fast plasma flows generated by magnetotail magnetic reconnection and slower background magnetospheric plasma flows. On the other hand, it is well-known that aurora spiral is also likely to be formed by the field-aligned current induced by the flow shear in the magnetotail, such as the Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. Based on the contemporaneous observations of TPA and aurora spiral, we try to investigate (diagnose) how the plasma and its energy are transported in the nightside magnetosphere toward ionosphere under northward IMF conditions. On January 10th, 1997, transpolar arc (TPA) and aurora spiral contemporaneously occurred for about 5.5 hours between 17:58 UT and 22:23 UT even when Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) orientation changed from weakly southward to northward at ~21:00 UT. Because no in-situ magnetotail observations were unfortunately found in this day, we performed global MHD simulations based on the Open Geospace General Circulation Model (Open GGCM) distributed in the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), and discussed the physical relation between two different auroral appearances and nightside magnetospheric processes. In this simulation, after the IMF-Bz orientation turned from weakly southward to northward, clear flow shear between fast earthward plasma flows triggered by magnetotail reconnection and slower tailward background magnetospheric flows was seen around Xgsm ~ -40 Re in the dawn sector, being consistent with the TPA and aurora spiral brightening. These flow shears may be a “source” of field-aligned currents to form the TPA. Furthermore, they bifurcated toward dawn and dusk, and showed stronger vortices in the dusk region than those in the dawnward sector. These vortex(-like) structures, bifurcated duskward, and associated field-aligned currents would be linked to the formation of the aurora spiral. In this presentation, we will discuss further the relation between the variations of these flow shear (vortex) structures, TPA and aurora spiral formations under northward IMF conditions, followed by weak southward IMF intervals.

Recent observational and theoretical studies have greatly revealed the dynamical nature of the Oort Cloud and its evolutionary history. However, many issues are yet to be known. Our goal is to understand current structure of this cloud as well as its dynamical origin. For estimating the current structure of the Oort Cloud, key information lies in the original orbit of the Oort Cloud new comets (OCNCs) that are defined at a distance where these objects do not receive gravitational perturbation from major planets (such as at r = 250 au from the Sun before comets enter into the planetary region). There have been several attempts to obtain OCNC’s original orbits, but it never has been an easy task. This requires numerical orbit propagation of the observed comets with high accuracy including perturbation from major disturbing bodies. In addition, non-gravitational forces often play significant roles here. First and foremost, the orbit determination of OCNC includes substantially large uncertainty because of limited number of observational arcs and very large eccentricity of the comets (~1). Here I show our result of comparison of various catalogues of OCNCs’ original orbital elements at r = 250 au: So-called the Warsaw catalogue by Krolikowska, the ephemeris given by MPC (Minor Planet Center), and that given by Horizons/JPL. In particular, I pay attention to the difference of the original semimajor axis among the several different solutions that the Warsaw catalogue and the MPC ephemeris have in comparison with the solutions given by Horizons/JPL - such as the difference between the solution 1 in the Warsaw catalogue and the solution from Horizons/JPL, the solutions 1 and 2 in the Warsaw catalogue, the solutions 2 and 3 in the MPC ephemeris and so forth. The resulting orbits that these solutions yield look overall similar, but sometimes they show stark difference for some reason.

The Japan/East Sea is well ventilated and is the most oxygen-rich region in the Pacific. However, quantitative estimates of the turbulent fluxes are missing due to a lack of observational data. To assess turbulent mixing, we employ data from the moored profiler Aqualog survey of April - October 2015 near the northwestern boundary of this region. The survey allowed observation of collocated depth profiles of conductivity, temperature, ocean current, and dissolved oxygen 8 times per day. Based on the finescale parameterization framework, the dissipation rate, the eddy diffusivity and the diapycnal fluxes of heat, salt and oxygen are estimated in the depth range from 130 to 350 m throughout the profiler deployment period. The survey average diffusivity increased with depth from 0.5x10-5 to 4.0x10-5 m2 s-1. The month-to-month variability in the mixing is presented. It was shown that the turbulent mixing undergoes intraseasonal variability. Early in May 2015, a transition in mixing occurred from the winter regime with upward turbulent fluxes of both heat and salt to the summer regime with the downward mixing of heat. The turbulent mixing was elevated in June when large anticyclonic eddies passed the profiler mooring. The probability distributions of the ratios of the turbulent heat and oxygen fluxes to the observed local changes in heat and oxygen were rather stable, particularly in the warm season. The application of the MX Toolbox to the profiler mooring data yields an estimate of the downward oxygen flux of roughly 8.6x103 μmol m-2 month-1. The data analysis was partly performed in the framework of the assignment of FASO Russia (theme 0149-2019-0011) and supported in part by RFBR grant 19-05-00459. The contribution of Dmitry Stepanov in modifying the Mixing Oceanographic Toolbox was supported by RFBR grant 20-05-00083.