Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Source Of Auroral Omegas, Heidi K. Nykyri, J.M. Weygand, Mostafa El-Alaoui

Publications

The auroral wave-like structures called “omega bands” appear within the post-midnight sector auroral oval with shapes resembling the Greek letter omega, and are typically associated with the recovery phase of substorms. Prior work and MHD simulations suggest both high speed earthward flows and postmidnight flow shears are possible omega band source mechanisms. However, what produces omega bands is not well understood. It is most likely that the paucity of concurrent magnetospheric data has limited our ability to understand fully the mechanism responsible for the generation of the omega bands. We have identified about 263 auroral omegas in seven different THEMIS …