Real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere

Ionization of the Earth's atmosphere by sunlight forms a complex, multilayered plasma environment within the Earth's magnetosphere, the innermost layers being the ionosphere and plasmasphere. The plasmasphere is believed to be embedded with cylindrical density structures (ducts) aligned al...

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Main Authors: Loi, S., Murphy, T., Cairns, I., Menk, F., Waters, C., Erickson, P., Trott, C., Hurley-Walker, Natasha, Morgan, John, Lenc, E., Offringa, A., Bell, M., Ekers, R., Gaensler, B., Lonsdale, C., Feng, L., Hancock, Paul, Kaplan, D., Bernardi, G., Bowman, J., Briggs, F., Cappallo, R., Deshpande, A., Greenhill, L., Hazelton, B., Johnston-Hollitt, M., Mcwhirter, S., Mitchell, D., Morales, M., Morgan, E., Oberoi, D., Ord, Stephen, Prabu, T., Shankar, N., Srivani, K., Subrahmanyan, R., Tingay, Steven, Wayth, Randall, Webster, R., Williams, A., Williams, C.
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Geophysical Union 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6774
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author Loi, S.
Murphy, T.
Cairns, I.
Menk, F.
Waters, C.
Erickson, P.
Trott, C.
Hurley-Walker, Natasha
Morgan, John
Lenc, E.
Offringa, A.
Bell, M.
Ekers, R.
Gaensler, B.
Lonsdale, C.
Feng, L.
Hancock, Paul
Kaplan, D.
Bernardi, G.
Bowman, J.
Briggs, F.
Cappallo, R.
Deshpande, A.
Greenhill, L.
Hazelton, B.
Johnston-Hollitt, M.
Mcwhirter, S.
Mitchell, D.
Morales, M.
Morgan, E.
Oberoi, D.
Ord, Stephen
Prabu, T.
Shankar, N.
Srivani, K.
Subrahmanyan, R.
Tingay, Steven
Wayth, Randall
Webster, R.
Williams, A.
Williams, C.
author_facet Loi, S.
Murphy, T.
Cairns, I.
Menk, F.
Waters, C.
Erickson, P.
Trott, C.
Hurley-Walker, Natasha
Morgan, John
Lenc, E.
Offringa, A.
Bell, M.
Ekers, R.
Gaensler, B.
Lonsdale, C.
Feng, L.
Hancock, Paul
Kaplan, D.
Bernardi, G.
Bowman, J.
Briggs, F.
Cappallo, R.
Deshpande, A.
Greenhill, L.
Hazelton, B.
Johnston-Hollitt, M.
Mcwhirter, S.
Mitchell, D.
Morales, M.
Morgan, E.
Oberoi, D.
Ord, Stephen
Prabu, T.
Shankar, N.
Srivani, K.
Subrahmanyan, R.
Tingay, Steven
Wayth, Randall
Webster, R.
Williams, A.
Williams, C.
author_sort Loi, S.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Ionization of the Earth's atmosphere by sunlight forms a complex, multilayered plasma environment within the Earth's magnetosphere, the innermost layers being the ionosphere and plasmasphere. The plasmasphere is believed to be embedded with cylindrical density structures (ducts) aligned along the Earth's magnetic field, but direct evidence for these remains scarce. Here we report the first direct wide-angle observation of an extensive array of field-aligned ducts bridging the upper ionosphere and inner plasmasphere, using a novel ground-based imaging technique. We establish their heights and motions by feature tracking and parallax analysis. The structures are strikingly organized, appearing as regularly spaced, alternating tubes of overdensities and underdensities strongly aligned with the Earth's magnetic field. These findings represent the first direct visual evidence for the existence of such structures.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T06:13:10Z
publishDate 2015
publisher American Geophysical Union
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-67742019-04-03T06:03:18Z Real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere Loi, S. Murphy, T. Cairns, I. Menk, F. Waters, C. Erickson, P. Trott, C. Hurley-Walker, Natasha Morgan, John Lenc, E. Offringa, A. Bell, M. Ekers, R. Gaensler, B. Lonsdale, C. Feng, L. Hancock, Paul Kaplan, D. Bernardi, G. Bowman, J. Briggs, F. Cappallo, R. Deshpande, A. Greenhill, L. Hazelton, B. Johnston-Hollitt, M. Mcwhirter, S. Mitchell, D. Morales, M. Morgan, E. Oberoi, D. Ord, Stephen Prabu, T. Shankar, N. Srivani, K. Subrahmanyan, R. Tingay, Steven Wayth, Randall Webster, R. Williams, A. Williams, C. Ionization of the Earth's atmosphere by sunlight forms a complex, multilayered plasma environment within the Earth's magnetosphere, the innermost layers being the ionosphere and plasmasphere. The plasmasphere is believed to be embedded with cylindrical density structures (ducts) aligned along the Earth's magnetic field, but direct evidence for these remains scarce. Here we report the first direct wide-angle observation of an extensive array of field-aligned ducts bridging the upper ionosphere and inner plasmasphere, using a novel ground-based imaging technique. We establish their heights and motions by feature tracking and parallax analysis. The structures are strikingly organized, appearing as regularly spaced, alternating tubes of overdensities and underdensities strongly aligned with the Earth's magnetic field. These findings represent the first direct visual evidence for the existence of such structures. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6774 10.1002/2015GL063699 American Geophysical Union fulltext
spellingShingle Loi, S.
Murphy, T.
Cairns, I.
Menk, F.
Waters, C.
Erickson, P.
Trott, C.
Hurley-Walker, Natasha
Morgan, John
Lenc, E.
Offringa, A.
Bell, M.
Ekers, R.
Gaensler, B.
Lonsdale, C.
Feng, L.
Hancock, Paul
Kaplan, D.
Bernardi, G.
Bowman, J.
Briggs, F.
Cappallo, R.
Deshpande, A.
Greenhill, L.
Hazelton, B.
Johnston-Hollitt, M.
Mcwhirter, S.
Mitchell, D.
Morales, M.
Morgan, E.
Oberoi, D.
Ord, Stephen
Prabu, T.
Shankar, N.
Srivani, K.
Subrahmanyan, R.
Tingay, Steven
Wayth, Randall
Webster, R.
Williams, A.
Williams, C.
Real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere
title Real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere
title_full Real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere
title_fullStr Real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere
title_full_unstemmed Real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere
title_short Real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere
title_sort real-time imaging of density ducts between the plasmasphere and ionosphere
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6774