ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Space Physics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1589264
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Approaches to Atmospheric Coupling and Geodetic Space Weather ResearchView all 3 articles
Characteristics of Multiple Transpolar Arcs Motion and its Corresponding Magnetospheric Dynamic Process
Provisionally accepted
YanJu Sun1,2
Qinghe Zhang1,2*
Zanyang Xing1*
Xiangyu Wang1
Duan Zhang2
Binbin Tang2
Sheng Lu1
Yuzhang Ma1
Yong Wang1Zhifeng Xiu1Xinming Chen1Tong Xu3Shuji Sun3
Jin Wang2
MANU VARGHESE2- 1Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment, Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University,, Weihai, China
- 2State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3China Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation, Qingdao, China
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Multiple Transpolar arcs (MTPAs) are distinct auroral phenomenon occurring in the high-latitude ionosphere under prolonged northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. While the evolution of MTPAs is thought to be mainly modulated by the IMF By, the underlying physical mechanisms driving their dynamics remain insufficiently understood. This study integrates space-based and ground-based observations, and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to investigate the evolution and characteristics of MTPAs and their associated field-aligned currents (FACs). The observations results reveal that following a sudden change in the IMF By orientation from dawnward to duskward, MTPAs exhibit a pronounced motion towards the duskside, driven by a strong positive IMF By. Concurrently, flow shears are detected on both flanks of the auroral arcs. MHD simulations under similar conditions demonstrate that flow shears emerge at the low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL) of the magnetosphere, facilitating plasma trapped from the magnetosheath and central plasma sheet onto open magnetic field lines. This plasma is subsequently transported into the lobe regions, generating upward FACs that accelerate local particles and form auroral arcs migrating towards the duskside within the polar cap. These findings advance our understanding of the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling processes under varying IMF conditions.
Keywords: aurora, Solar-terrestrial interaction, magnetosphere, polar ionosphere, multiple transpolar arcs
Received: 07 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Zhang, Xing, Wang, Zhang, Tang, Lu, Ma, Wang, Xiu, Chen, Xu, Sun, Wang and VARGHESE. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qinghe Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100190, Beijing Municipality, China
Zanyang Xing, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment, Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University,, Weihai, China
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