The Immediate Auroral Response to Interplanetary Shocks

Jim Spann, NASA Headquarters, Code SR, Washington DC

The auroral response to the dynamic solar wind is generally thought of as
having a time lag of several minutes to hours. However, with the
simultaneous and continuous availability of global images and solar wind
data for several hours has enabled the direct and immediate response of the
aurora to be observed. Localized as well as large-scale phenomena have been
observed contiguously with sudden variances in the solar wind density and
velocity. A review of the historical and recent progress in this area of
research will be presented as well as outstanding questions that have not
been fully answered.

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Presented at the Fall American Geophysical Union Meeting, 
San Francisco, CA., December 15-19, 2000