Auroral Physics

This volume surveys our current scientific understanding of the aurora. It is organized into eleven reviews detailing theoretical and observational aspects of characteristic auroral morphologies, and how these in turn tend to be organized according to local time, latitude, and activity level.

Popular descriptions often attribute the aurora to the interaction of charged particles from the solar wind with atoms in the upper atmosphere. Simple descriptions of this chain of events often omit many essential links, which are covered in greater detail in this volume. Importantly, many key aspects of the aurora—most notably, the physical mechanism responsible for the generation of discrete arcs—are still unexplained, and auroral physics continues to be an active area of scientific research. Each review chapter therefore includes a summary of open questions for further investigation.

Providing the first comprehensive review of the terrestrial aurora in two decades, this book will aid other researchers and newcomers who are interested in the field.

Previously published in Space Science Reviews in the Topical Collection "Auroral Physics”