A new southern high-latitude index

• Main Authors: P. Ballatore, C. G. Maclennan, M. J. Engebretson, J. Bitterly, C. -i. Meng, G. Burns
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1997
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.555.3662; http://www.ann-geophys.net/16/1589/1998/angeo-16-1589-1998.pdf

Abstract. We have developed and examined a new regional geomagnetic index AES-80, defined similarly to the classical auroral electrojet AE index, using data from five Antarctic stations located at corrected geomagnetic latitudes about 80 °S. Because only sparse ground-based information can be derived from auroral latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, and because no index compara-ble to AE can be constructed from locations in the south, the possibility of using AES-80 as a measure of high latitudes and polar cap activity is investigated. As a global average activity level indicator, it is found that in general AES-80 gives results rather similar to the classical AE index. However AES-80 provides a more robust measure of the occurrence of high-latitude geomagnetic activity. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (auroral phenomena; polar cap phenomena). 1