Equatorial aurora: the aurora-like airglow in the negative magnetic anomaly

• 作者: Fei He Weixing Wan Yong Wei
• 来源期刊: 国家科学评论（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（10）
• 所属期刊栏目: REVIEWS
• 页码范围: 1606-1615
• 页数: 10页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa083

摘要

The most fantastic optical phenomena in the Earth's upper atmosphere are the auroras.They are highly informative indicators of solar activity,geomagnetic activity,upper atmospheric structures and dynamics,and magnetospheric energetic particles.An area where the geomagnetic field differs significantly from the expected symmetric dipole,such as at the South Atlantic Anomaly,where the magnetic field intensity is low,gives rise to stronger precipitation of energetic particles into the upper atmosphere.Impact excitation and the subsequent airglow emissions exhibit aurora-like dynamic signatures.Nomenclatures ofnonpolar aurora or equatorial auroras are similar to those used with the polar auroras owing to their similar excitation mechanisms.This paper provides an overview of the knowledge and the challenges concerning auroral activity at the South Atlantic Anomaly,or more generally,at the negative magnetic anomaly.We emphasize systematic investigation of the equatorial auroras to reveal the temporal and spatial evolution of the magnetic anomaly and the behaviour of energetic particles in near-Earth space.