Auroral Substorms and Magnetic field elasticity

[Xormis]

I just watched this segment on NASA's THEMIS mission discovering earth's magnetic field behaving like a drum and vibrating in response to shocks.  Then I was thinking about auroral Substorms and I came up with this idea.

 

Do you guys think the dynamic movement of Auroral Substorms could be the result of field aligned current when the field lines are vibrating after an magnetic reconnection event?

 

1. I have been reading about field aligned current contributing to a lot of the visible aurora.  And magnetic reconnection accelerating electrons toward the poles during prolonged Bz south is associated with Substorms when CME is absent.

 

2. Auroral Substorms start with quiet phase where you have homogenous arcs.  Field lines are not moving much in this phase.

 

3. As the field aligned current strengthens, more bands appear, southern most bands brighten and move equatorially.  This also makes sense as the field line is compressed just prior to reconnection.

 

4. When magnetic reconnection occurs, the field aligned current is supercharged but the field lines are shaken by this energetic event.  Now due to energetic release the field lines are shaking, you can't have a homogenous arc any more.  Similar to if the light on a projector is shaken, now the aurora breaks up into swirling folds and rotating curtains.  I especially think the omega bands during Substorms look just like a rippling field line.

 

5. Once the dynamic event is over, the homogenous arcs re-appear when field lines stablize after vibration.  However, if a second reconnection event occurs before full recovery, we can see another substorm develop from the location of magnetic midnight without re-appearance of homogenous arcs.  

 

I admit my knowledge of Auroral/plasma  physics is not that strong.  Maybe I didn't get the right idea but am I on the right track?  Or maybe people knew this years ago and I am late to the party.

 

You physics pros out there please let me know! Thank you!

 

Xormis

Edited August 30, 2020 by Xormis
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