A stable auroral red (SAR) arc with multiple emission features
Abstract
Stable auroral red (SAR) arcs offer subvisible evidence for storm time linkages between the inner magnetosphere and the midlatitude ionosphere. A SAR arc's defining characteristics are horizon‐to‐horizon east‐west extent, a few degrees of latitude in meridional extent, emission only at the oxygen 6300 Å line, and minimal brightness changes during a night—effects readily provided by steady heat conduction from the ring current‐plasmapause interaction region. Here we describe a typical SAR arc (brightness ~300 rayleighs) with several superimposed patches of emission in two oxygen lines (with a 6300 Å/5577 Å ratio of ~40). We find no evidence for highly localized heating effects but rather evidence from GPS satellites supporting low‐energy electron precipitation as the SAR arc modulating mechanism. Seven brightness peaks with average longitude spacing of ~4° define a new spatial pattern for SAR arc studies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1002/2016ja023258
Entities
People
- Carlos Martinis
- J. Wroten
- Jeffrey Baumgardner
- Marcus Casillas
- Michael Mendillo
- Robert Finan
Organizations
- Boston University
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research