DIRECT OBSERVATION OF LARGE, QUASI-STATIC, PARALLEL ELECTRIC-FIELDS IN THE AURORAL ACCELERATION REGION

The three-axis electric field experiment on the Polar satellite provid es direct observations of electric field components parallel and perpe ndicular to the local magnetic field with no arbitrary adjustment para meters. Approximately 750 perigee passes through each of the two south ern auroral zones at a geocentric altitude of about two Earth radii ha ve been computer-searched for parallel electric fields whose eight poi nt (0.2 or 0.4 second) average exceeded 100 mV/m. After elimination of spurious events due to shadowing, saturation, and ten other effects, four events containing parallel fields of 200-300 mV/m, remain. These four events all occur in upward field aligned current regions, their p arallel electric fields are all positive such that (j) over right arro w.(E) over right arrow > 0, and they occur at boundaries between regio ns of active and quiet perpendicular electric fields. Up-going ion bea ms are observed in the active field regions, and the plasma density is higher in the quiet field regions than in the adjacent active field r egions. These boundaries are interpreted in terms of model equipotenti als, some of which are below the spacecraft in the large field regions and all of which are above the spacecraft in the quiet field regions. In this model, the expected location of large parallel electric field s is where they are observed. That the potential difference measured b y the electric field instrument along the vehicle trajectory and the k inetic energy of the up-going ions are equal lends further credence to the data and its interpretation.