Simulation of feedback instability in the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system

[1] Quiet auroral arcs formation has been investigated theoretically and numerically in a self-consistent dynamic way. By using a three-dimensional magneto-hydro-dynamics simulation of a dipole magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling system, it is shown that multiple longitudinally striated structures of the ionospheric plasma density and the field-aligned current are formed, resulting from nonlinear feedback instability. The areas where these structures appear are consistent with the prediction by the integrated feedback theory that includes the effects of the spatially non-uniform electric field and non-uniform plasma density. Effects of the difference of the field line lengths between the ionosphere and the magnetospheric equator over the auroral latitudes are also discussed on the feedback instability