A UNIFYING THEORY OF HIGH-LATITUDE GEOPHYSICAL PHENOMENA AND GEOMAGNETIC STORMS

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the occurrence at high latitudes of a large number of geophysical phenomena, including geomagnetic agitation and bay disturbances, aurorae, and various irregular distributions of ionospheric electrons. It shows that these may all be related in a simple way to a single causal agency, namely, a certain convection system in the outer portion of the earth's magnetosphere. The source of this convection is taken to be a viscous-like interaction between the magnetosphere and an assumed solar wind, though other sources of an equivalent nature may also be available. The model is capable of accounting for many aspects of the phenomena concerned, including the morphology of auroral forms and the occurrence of 'spiral' patterns in the loci of maximum intensities of several features. It also bears directly on the steady state of the magnetosphere, and in particular on the production of trapped particles in the outer Van Allen belt. In short, it provides a new basis on which a full understanding of these several phenomena may in time be built.