Attiyah Zahdeh
April 29th, 2008, 01:27 AM
The whole ionosphere is a planetary-scale glow discharge tube.
Through its intimate coordination and cooperation with the rest of the magnetosphere, including Van Allen radiation belts, the ionosphere serves as a global-scale glow discharge tube.
This hypothesis has the following consequences:
1- There are not only two auroral ovals: the northern and the southern ones, but instead there are two series of auroral ovals: the series of the auroral ovals of the northern geomagnetic hemisphere and the series of the auroral ovals of the southern geomagnetic hemisphere.
2- The traditional northern and southern auroral ovals are only the terminal ones.
3- In between each two successive ovals there is an ionospheric trough separating them from each other.
4- Each one of the auroral ovals has two sectors: a daytime sector and a night time sector.
5- All the daytime sectors of the auroral ovals from the terminal polar one to the equatotial one are normally visual.
6- The nighttime sector of the terminal polar oval is usually visual.
7- Generally, the daytime sectors are almost optically merged.
8- The once thought of as an equatorward extension of the traditional auroral oval, particularly its nighttime sector, is virtually a sequence of transient mergings of the night time sectors of some of the successive enhanced ovals, including the traditional auroral oval as their terminal beginning.
9- A somewhat complete analogy could be held between the ionosphere as a glow discharge tube and a typical electric glow discharge tube. In this respect we can say that:
a- The northern polar cap and southern polar cap are analogous to the anode dark space and Aston dark space, respectively.
b- The traditional northern auroral oval and traditional southern auroral oval are analogous to the anode glow and cathode glow, respectively.
c- The anode dark space, cathode dark space, and Faraday space are analogous to ionospheric troughs.
Through its intimate coordination and cooperation with the rest of the magnetosphere, including Van Allen radiation belts, the ionosphere serves as a global-scale glow discharge tube.
This hypothesis has the following consequences:
1- There are not only two auroral ovals: the northern and the southern ones, but instead there are two series of auroral ovals: the series of the auroral ovals of the northern geomagnetic hemisphere and the series of the auroral ovals of the southern geomagnetic hemisphere.
2- The traditional northern and southern auroral ovals are only the terminal ones.
3- In between each two successive ovals there is an ionospheric trough separating them from each other.
4- Each one of the auroral ovals has two sectors: a daytime sector and a night time sector.
5- All the daytime sectors of the auroral ovals from the terminal polar one to the equatotial one are normally visual.
6- The nighttime sector of the terminal polar oval is usually visual.
7- Generally, the daytime sectors are almost optically merged.
8- The once thought of as an equatorward extension of the traditional auroral oval, particularly its nighttime sector, is virtually a sequence of transient mergings of the night time sectors of some of the successive enhanced ovals, including the traditional auroral oval as their terminal beginning.
9- A somewhat complete analogy could be held between the ionosphere as a glow discharge tube and a typical electric glow discharge tube. In this respect we can say that:
a- The northern polar cap and southern polar cap are analogous to the anode dark space and Aston dark space, respectively.
b- The traditional northern auroral oval and traditional southern auroral oval are analogous to the anode glow and cathode glow, respectively.
c- The anode dark space, cathode dark space, and Faraday space are analogous to ionospheric troughs.