The magnetospheric driver of strong thermal emission velocity enhancement (STEVE) is investigated using conjugate observations when Van Allen Probes' footprint directly crossed both STEVE and stable red aurora (SAR) arc. In the ionosphere, STEVE is associated with subauroral ion drift features, including electron temperature peak, density gradient, and westward ion flow. The SAR arc at lower latitudes corresponds to regions inside the plasmapause with isotropic plasma heating, which causes redline‐only SAR emission via heat conduction. STEVE corresponds to the sharp plasmapause boundary containing quasi‐static subauroral ion drift electric field and parallel‐accelerated electrons by kinetic Alfvén waves. These parallel electrons could precipitate and be accelerated via auroral acceleration processes powered by Alfvén waves propagating along the magnetic field with the plasmapause as a waveguide. The electron precipitation, superimposed on the heat conduction, could explain multiwavelength continuous STEVE emission. The green picket‐fence emissions are likely optical manifestations of electron precipitation associated with wave structures traveling along the plasmapause.
[1] Experimental results obtained with the 449-MHz Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) show unusual features in both the ion line and plasma line measurements during an auroral breakup event. The features are a greatly enhanced flat ion acoustic spectrum (believed to indicate the presence of an additional peak at zero Doppler), and two peaks in the plasma line spectrum. Similar spectral morphologies are observed during active HF ionospheric modification experiments and are considered unmistakable indications of Strong Langmuir Turbulence (SLT). In SLT theory, the central peak in ion acoustic spectrum is caused by Bragg scattering from non-propagating density fluctuations (cavitons), and the two peaks in the plasma line spectrum are associated with (1) Langmuir waves trapped in the cavitons, at the cold plasma frequency, and (2) a "free mode" at the Langmuir frequency. Free modes are radiated Langmuir waves from collapsing cavitons that follow the linear dispersion relation. The observed turbulence was confined to a thin layer ($10-km) centered at $230 km altitude. Citation: Akbari, H., J. L.
[1] The recently discovered coherent echoes in the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar data with flat ion-line spectrum and simultaneous double-peaked plasma-line spectrum in the lower ionospheric F region are investigated in greater detail. High-range resolution measurements reveal that the turbulence is sometimes manifested as two concurrent layers separated by about 50 km. The turbulence layers appear at regions of zero electron density gradient, supporting the interpretation that propagation effects play an important role in limiting the waves' amplitude. Although Langmuir intensity is limited by propagation effects outside of the layers, it reaches to nonlinear regime inside the layers, giving rise to the observed range and spectral morphologies. Furthermore, the radar measurements of the electrostatic waves appear to be correlated in space and time with natural auroral electromagnetic emissions, supporting the previous theory that "MF-bursts" are produced by linear conversion of Langmuir waves produced by soft electron precipitation (~few hundred electronvolts) on the topside F region. The results presented in this report suggest that the observed Langmuir turbulence and MF-burst are both manifestations of the same process.
Measurements from a dense network of GPS receivers have been used to clarify the relationship between substorm auroras and GPS signal corruption as manifested by loss of lock on the received signal. A network of nine receivers was deployed along roadways near the Poker Flat Research Range in central Alaska, with receiver spacing between 15 and 30 km. Instances of large‐amplitude phase fluctuations and signal loss of lock were registered in space and time with auroral forms associated with a sequence of westward traveling surges associated with a substorm onset over central Canada. The following conclusions were obtained: (1) The signal corruption originated in the ionospheric E region, between 100 and 150 km altitude, and (2) the GPS links suffering loss of lock were confined to a narrow band (<20 km wide) along the trailing edge of the moving auroral forms. The results are discussed in the context of mechanisms typically cited to account for GPS phase scintillation by auroral processes.
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