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IMAGE scientists have
discovered major new flows of energy from the bow shock region into the polar regions of Earth.
The energy travels down through the so-called magnetic 'cusp' zones where Earth's magnetic
field converges on the Arctic and Antarctic Regions. These flows seem to be responsible for
increasing the brightness of a new type of aurora detected by IMAGE and produced by protons
entering the atmosphere.
(2001: Shen-Wu Chang, Stephen B. Mende, Joseph F. Fennell, Harlan E. Spence, Karel Kudela)
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Related IMAGE Discoveries
Additional
Information
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Bow Shock -A disturbance set up when a body tries
to travel quickly through a surrounding medium. Similar to the wake of a speed boat.
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Cusp -Region in the sunward-tilted magnetic
field of Earth where charged particles can enter the polar regions. Faint daytime aurora
result, but are not visible to the eye.
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IMAGE experiments
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Useful Web
Resources
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Curator
Dr. S. Odenwald, sten.odenwald@gsfc.nasa.gov, +1-301-286-6953
NSSDC, Mail Code 630, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
NASA Approval: J. L. Green, James.Green@nasa.gov
Rev. 1.0.0, 24 April 2003, EVB
II
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