Auroral oval as a beautiful but outdated paradigm

Abstract

Being an important region of the polar ionosphere, the auroral oval is considered in many studies on the disturbed magnetosphere. The oval seems to be thoroughly known to all researchers, but there is evidence of misunderstanding in some papers, so it is time to review this matter. Most works describing the auroral position and dynamics were published more than a half-century ago and became a rarity. In this paper, we tell the history of studies on distribution of auroras before the oval was discovered. We also touch upon the discovery of the oval and tell how it changed our viewpoint on the magnetospheric processes. Besides, we describe how the oval paradigm developed and became non-productive (from our point of view) for studying the structure of the magnetosphere and magnetospheric disturbances. Finally we show the position of the aural zone and auroral magnetosphere among the main domains of the magnetosphere.