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Observational evidence for the role of Hall conductance in Alfvén wave reflection
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  • Magnus Fagernes Ivarsen,
  • Jaeheung Park,
  • Young-Sil Kwak,
  • Yaqi Jin,
  • David J. Knudsen,
  • Lasse Boy Novock Clausen
Magnus Fagernes Ivarsen
University of Oslo

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Jaeheung Park
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
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Young-Sil Kwak
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
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Yaqi Jin
University of Oslo
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David J. Knudsen
University of Calgary
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Lasse Boy Novock Clausen
University of Oslo
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Abstract

Electromagnetic energy carried by magnetohydrodynamic modes is an important mechanism in the energy transfer between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere. Through wave reflection in the ionosphere, Alfvén waves are known to carry field-aligned currents, and thus play an important role in the dynamics of the ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling. The role of Hall conductance in this interplay has been explored in magneto-hydrodynamic models of the ionosphere, but has hitherto not been observed in-situ. We use five years of observations from the Swarm mission to shed light on this interplay. We present the high-latitude climatology of both the measured Poynting flux and the measured Alfvén wave reflection coefficient. Our results indicate that high-energy deeply penetrating precipitation, which directly leads to strongly enhanced Hall conductance, is an important cause of positively interfering Alfvén wave reflection. We present such observational evidence, and with that, suggest that Hall conductance is substantially more important in the ionospheric wave reflection climatology than hitherto believed.
Dec 2020Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics volume 125 issue 12. 10.1029/2020JA028119