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Temporal Characteristics and Energy Deposition of Pulsating Auroral PatchesWe present a careful statistical analysis of pulsating aurora (PA) using all-sky green line (557.7 nm) images obtained at 3.3 Hz. Six well-defined individual PA patches are identified and extracted using a contouring technique. Quantitative parameters such as the patch duration (on-time and off-time), peak intensity, and integrated intensity are determined for each patch and each pulsation. The resulting characteristics serve as strict observational constraints that any of the many competing theories attempting to explain PA must predict. The purpose of this paper is to determine the characteristics of PA patches in order to provide better observational constraints on the suggested mechanisms. All aspects of the temporal behavior of the individual patches appear to be erratic. Historically, PA has been defined very loosely and we argue that the use of the term pulsating is inappropriate since our findings and other published results are not regularly periodic and thus a more appropriate term may be fluctuating aurora. Further, we find that the observational constraints do not fit well with the flow cyclotron maser theory, which in particular is suggested to create PA patches. There is no clear candidate of the suggested mechanisms and drivers to explain the observational constraints set by the PA patches in a satisfactory manner.
Document ID
20170002767
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Humberset, B. K.
(Bergen Univ. Norway)
Gjerloev, J. W.
(Bergen Univ. Norway)
Samara, M.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Michell, R. G.
(Maryland Univ. College Park, MD, United States)
Mann, I. R.
(Alberta Univ. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
Date Acquired
March 31, 2017
Publication Date
July 23, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Publisher: American Geophysical Union
Volume: o 121
Issue: 7
ISSN: 2169-9380
e-ISSN: 2169-9402
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN40914
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG17PT01A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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