Hollowness of the observed auroral kilometric radiation pattern

Presumably also generated by electron cyclotron emission, the earth's auroral kilometric radiation would be expected to exhibit a hollow pattern in the direction of the source magnetic field, similar to that reported for the comparable emissions from Jupiter. Although previously overlooked, such hollowness is clearly present in the new pattern measurements of Green and Gallagher (1985) at 56 kHz, occupying source-centered latitudes of 30 to 45 deg and hence occurring exactly where it was predicted and previously observed. Being distributed in longitude and spanning the entire evening sector, presumably reflecting a similar longitudinal distribution of auroral zone sources, this hollowness is attributed to sources beamed preferentially in the poleward magnetic meridian.