Alfven Waves and Electron Energization and Their Interaction with Auroral Ionospheric Plasma Transport

When inertial Alfv\'en waves propagate along auroral field lines, they involve parallel electric fields that can accelerate auroral electrons. Here, we simulate the propagation of Alfv\'en waves through O+ and H+ auroral ionosphere-magnetosphere density profiles obtained from the UT Arlington Dynamic Fluid- Kinetic (DyFK) ionospheric plasma transport model [e.g; Estep et al; 1999]. A linear one dimensional gyrofluid code [Jones and Parker, 2003] is used for the Alfv\'en wave description, incorporating electron inertia, electron pressure gradient and finite ion gyroradius effects. Then, the test particle approach of Su et al. [2004] is used to simulate the response of a distribution of electrons to these Alfv\'en wave electric fields. These electrons are incorporated into the DyFK model to produce a partially-self-consistent approach to producing the associated ionization and thermal electron heating within the ionosphere-magnetosphere system.