Workshop Participants

The purpose of this workshop is to bring together auroral experimentalists (ground-based and in situ), theorists and simulationists in order to produce a thorough assessment of our current state of understanding of the essential properties of auroras and the mechanisms responsible for them. All relevant literature will be reviewed in order to establish the best characterization possible of auroral properties including morphology and structure, lifetime, particle energies and fluxes, relation to electrical currents, variability, frequency of occurrence, locations, source regions, environmental factors (solar illumination, solar wind), and any other parameters that can be used to test theories. Candidate theories will be summarized and reviewed critically according to their ability to address observed parameters. The workshop and the book that results from it will document established facts and critical gaps in our current understanding, in support of the long-term goal to identify the physical mechanisms underlying the creation and behavior of the aurora.