Articles | Volume 14, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-996-0545-1
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-996-0545-1
31 May 1996
31 May 1996

Penetration to the Earth's surface of standing Alfvén waves excited by external currents in the ionosphere

A. S. Leonovich and V. A. Mazur

Abstract. The problem of boundary conditions for monochromatic Alfvén waves, excited in the magnetosphere by external currents in the ionospheric E-layer, is solved analytically. Waves with large azimuthal wave numbers m»1 are considered. In our calculations, we used a model for the horizontally homogeneous ionosphere with an arbitrary inclination of geomagnetic field lines and a realistic height disribution of Alfvén velocity and conductivity tensor components. A relationship between such Alfvén waves on the upper ionospheric boundary with electromagnetic oscillations on the ground was detected, and the spatial structure of these oscillations determined.