Abstract. We present the first investigation of the structure of the stellar surface magnetic field using line profiles in all four Stokes parameters. We extract the information about the magnetic field geometry and abundance distributions of the chemically peculiar star 53 Cam by modelling time-series of high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations with the help of a new magnetic Doppler imaging code. This combination of the unique four Stokes parameter data and state-of-the-art magnetic imaging technique makes it possible to infer the stellar magnetic field topology directly from the rotational variability of the Stokes spectra. In the magnetic imaging of 53 Cam we discard the traditional multipolar assumptions about the structure of magnetic fields in Ap stars and explore the stellar magnetic topology without introducing any global a priori constraints on the field structure. The complex magnetic model of 53 Cam derived with our magnetic Doppler imaging method achieves a good fit to the observed intensity, circular and linear polarization profiles of strong magnetically sensitive Fe spectral lines. Such an agreement between observations and model predictions was not possible with any earlier multipolar magnetic models, based on modelling Stokes I spectra and fitting surface averaged magnetic observables (e.g., longitudinal field, magnetic field modulus, etc.). Furthermore, we demonstrate that even the direct inversion of the four Stokes parameters of 53 Cam assuming a loworder multipolar magnetic geometry is incapable of achieving an adequate fit to our spectropolarimetric observations. Thus, as a main result of our investigation, we discover that the magnetic field topology of 53 Cam is considerably more complex than any low-order multipolar expansion, raising a general question about the validity of the multipolar assumption in the studies of magnetic field structures of Ap stars. In addition to the analysis of the magnetic field of 53 Cam, we reconstruct surface abundance distributions of Si, Ca, Ti, Fe and Nd. These abundance maps confirm results of the previous studies of 53 Cam, in particular dramatic antiphase variation of Ca and Ti abundances.
[1] The JOULE-II sounding rocket salvo was launched from Poker Flat Rocket Range into weak pulsating aurora following a moderate substorm at 0345 LT on 19 January 2007. We present in situ measurements of ion flow velocity and electric and magnetic fields combined with neutral wind observations derived from ground observations of in situ chemical tracers. Measured ion drifts in the 150-198 km and 92-105 km altitude ranges are consistent withẼ ÂB motion to within 16 m s À1 rms and with neutral wind velocity to within 20 m s À1 , respectively. From these measurements we have calculated the ratio k of the ion cyclotron and ion collision frequencies, finding k = 1 at an altitude of 118 ± 0.3 km. Using direct measurements of ion current, we calculate the Joule heating rate and Pedersen and Hall conductivity profiles for this moderately active event and find height-integrated values of 390 W km À2 and 0.59 and 2.22 S, respectively. We also find that these values would have errors of up to tens of percent without coincident neutral wind measurements, and presumably more so during more active conditions. Ion flow vectors were measured at a rate of 125 s
Abstract. This paper presents a new fully automatic method for quickly finding the average peak emission height of a single auroral structure from a pair of all-sky camera images with overlapping fields of view. The peak emission height of the aurora must be estimated in order to calculate several other important parameters, such as horizontal spatial scales, optical flow velocities, and ionospheric electric fields. In most cases the height is not measured, but a value is assumed, often about 110 km. It is unclear how accurate this assumption is. A future statistical study of the auroral height in which the method presented here will be applied to many years of observations will lead to more accurate assumptions of the height with quantitative error estimates, and therefore more accurate estimates of parameters derived using these assumed auroral heights. In the present work the performance of the new method is compared to another recent automatic method. It is found that the new method measures the peak emission height regardless of the shape of the volume emission rate profile, unlike the other recent method. However, the new method is less suitable than the other method for analysis of very wide auroral arcs (> 30 km) or for aurora in the magnetic zenith of one of the images.
[1] We present in situ and ground-based measurements of the ratio k of ion cyclotron angular frequency to ion-neutral momentum transfer collision frequency to investigate ionosphere-thermosphere (IT) coupling in the auroral E region. In situ observations were obtained by NASA sounding rocket 36.234, which was launched into the nightside E region ionosphere at 1229 UT on 19 January 2007 from Poker Flat, AK. The payload carried instrumentation to determine ion drift angle and electric field vectors. Neutral winds were measured by triangulating a chemical tracer released from rocket 41.064 launched two minutes later. k is calculated from the rotation of the ion drift angle relative to the E-cross-B drift direction in a frame co-rotating with the payload. Between the altitudes of 118 km and 130 km k increases exponentially with a scale height of 9.3 AE 0.7 km, deviating from an exponential above 130 km. k = 1 at an altitude z 0 of 119.9 AE 0.5 km. The ratio was also estimated from Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) measurements using the rotation of ion velocity with altitude. Exponential fits to the PFISR measurements made during the flight of 41.064 yield z 0 = 115.9 AE 1.2 km and a scale height of 9.1 AE 1.0 km. Differences between in situ and ground-based measurements show that the E region atmospheric densities were structured vertically and/or horizontally on scales of 1 km to 10 km. There were no signs of ionospheric structure in ion density or ion temperature below scales of 1 km. The observations demonstrate the accuracy with which the in situ and PFISR data may be used as probes of IT coupling.
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