Observational properties of throat aurora are investigated in detail by using 7 year continuous auroral observations obtained at Yellow River Station (magnetic latitude 76.24°N). From our inspection, throat aurora is often observed under the condition of stripy diffuse aurora contacting with the persistent discrete auroral oval, and the long‐period throat aurora observations generally consist of intermittent subsequences of throat aurora brightening followed by poleward moving auroral form and throat aurora dimming. We also noticed that the orientation of throat aurora is aligned along the ionospheric convection flow, and its local time distribution shows clear dependence on the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) By component. These observational results indicate that factors inside the magnetosphere may play important role on occurrence of throat aurora. We thus suggest that throat aurora may present the ionospheric signature of redistribution of reconnection rate on the magnetopause by cold magnetospheric plasma flowing into the reconnection site. In addition, we also found that the occurrence rate of throat aurora clearly decreases with increase of the IMF cone angle (arccos(|Bx|/B)), which is very similar with the occurrence rate of high‐speed jet (HSJ) observed in magnetosheath depending on the IMF cone angle. This is suggested as that the HSJs occurred outside the magnetosphere may also play important role for generation of throat aurora by triggering magnetopause reconnection or by direct impacting. Although further studies are needed to clarify how the throat auroras are generated in detail, the relevant observations about throat aurora have presented important implications on a variety open questions, such as distribution and generation of cold plasma structures in the outer magnetosphere, magnetopause deformation, and possible relation between HSJ and reconnection.

[1] We examined temporal variations of a dayside aurora and corresponding ionospheric plasma convection observed by an all-sky camera (ASC) and the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) over Zhongshan (ZHS), located at −74.5°in magnetic latitude (MLAT) in Antarctica, during a geomagnetic sudden commencement (SC) event that occurred on 27 May 2001. Simultaneous ASC observations at South Pole (SP, −74.3°MLAT) were also analyzed. During the SC time, ZHS and SP were located in the postnoon (1610 MLT) and prenoon (1100 MLT) sectors, respectively. Before the SC onset (1458UT), the ASC at ZHS observed an auroral arc with moderate intensity in the poleward direction of the field of view (FOV), and the SuperDARN radar detected sunward ionospheric plasma flow over ZHS. Just after the SC onset, the auroral intensity over ZHS decreased rapidly and the direction of the plasma flow was reversed to antisunward. Decrease of auroral intensity and reversal of the associated plasma convection in response to a sudden increase of the solar wind dynamic pressure at the early stage of a SC event has never been reported before. We suggest that these observational results were generated by a downward field-aligned current (FAC) and are consistent with a physical model of SC. The model predicts the appearance of a pair of FACs flowing downward (upward) in the postnoon (prenoon) sector at the very beginning of the SC, which is also supported by our observations. Consistence of the detailed observations with the model will be discussed in the paper, and we argue that here we present the first optical observational evidence supporting the validity of the model.

Magnetopause transients, observing as brief entries into the magnetosheath by satellites, are commonly observed in the vicinity of the magnetopause and have been explained by several possible mechanisms. However, satellite observations alone are insufficient to determine the dynamics and context of transients. Throat auroras are characterized as north‐south aligned discrete auroral forms extending from the equatorward edge of the discrete auroral oval that are only observed near dayside convection throat region and have been suggested as the ionospheric signature of localized magnetopause indentations. Using coordinated observations from the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) and ground‐based all‐sky imagers, we show apparent one‐to‐one correspondences between transients observed by MMS near the subsolar magnetopause and throat auroras observed on the ground. The correspondence is valid not only for typical throat aurora with larger spatial scale but also for these with tiny scales. We even notice that the transient durations observed by satellite are approximately proportional to the width (east‐west extension) of the throat aurora. These results provide direct evidence that throat auroras are ground signatures for the magnetopause transients. With the aid of auroral observations, we suggest that these transients reflect localized magnetopause indentations but are not produced by motion of the entire magnetopause. We also found that most transients observed here are associated with earthward flow enhancements, which indicates that high‐speed jets in the magnetosheath could be a driver for producing these transients.

Throat auroras have been suggested to be related to indentations on the subsolar magnetopause. However, the indentation generation process and the resulting ionospheric responses have remained unknown. An EISCAT Svalbard Radar experiment was designed to run with all‐sky cameras, which enabled us for the first time to observe the temporal and spatial evolution of flow reversals, Joule heating, and ion upflows associated with throat aurora. The high‐resolution data enabled us to discriminate that the flow bursts and Joule heating were concurrent and co‐located, but were always observed on the west side of the associated throat auroras, reflecting that the upward/downward field‐aligned currents associated with throat aurora are always to the east/west, respectively. These results are consistent with the geometry of Southwood (1987) flux transfer event model and provide strong evidence for throat aurora being associated with magnetopause reconnection events. The results also support a conceptual model of the throat aurora.