Generation of auroral arc elements in an inverted-V arc due to ion cyclotron turbulence

By using a two-dimensional particle simulation it is shown that the electrostatic ion cyclotron turbulence driven by the field-aligned current on auroral field lines can lead to striations of the current into east–west aligned current sheets of ion gyroradius scale (La ∼ ρi). Physical mechanism for the striation can be identified with nonlinear mode couplings of ion cyclotron waves resulting in condensation of the wave energy into a zero-frequency mode. It is proposed that the auroral arc elements (La ∼ ρi), which collectively give rise to the inverted-V arc (Lυ ≫ ρi), can be produced by the east–west aligned striations of the field-aligned current on inverted-V field lines.

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