Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm13b2038j&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM13B-2038
Physics
[2407] Ionosphere / Auroral Ionosphere, [2716] Magnetospheric Physics / Energetic Particles: Precipitating, [2736] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions
Scientific paper
Pulsating aurora (PA) is a common ionospheric phenomenon and as such offers a unique opportunity to study the source of the precipitating particle populations. Whistler-mode chorus waves are naturally occurring magnetospheric plasma waves that are distinguished as a discrete superposition of quasi-monochromatic emissions and it is thought that they are the mechanism for pitch angle scattering of energetic electrons into the loss-cone. The dominant source of loss-cone scattering for energetic equatorial electrons, which can then precipitate as PA, has been explored, but not yet clearly identified. Here we use simultaneous satellite- and ground-based data to show that there is an intimate relationship between frequencies of equatorial electron flux pulsations and PA luminosity in the corresponding ionospheric magnetic footprint. Observations of a typical PA event were obtained on March 15, 2008 using the THEMIS all-sky imager (ASI) array. The field line footprint of the geostationary GOES 13 satellite, mapped down to the ionosphere at ~200 km, is located within the field-of-view of the ASIs. The Magnetospheric Electron Detector (MAGED) on GOES 13 consists of a crossed-fan array of nine solid-state detector telescopes, with each telescope reporting electron fluxes in five energy channels from 30 to 600 keV. We computed an array of the correlation coefficients between the pixel luminosity for each individual pixel of the ASI images and the flux measurements at the satellite. The results show regions of strong correlation between the luminosity fluctuations on the ground and particle pulsations in space. We also report a preliminary quantification of loss-cone coverage of each telescope and how it changed in response to magnetospheric dynamics.
Jaynes A. N.
Lessard Marc
Rodriguez Juan V.
Rychert K. M.
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