Structures of dayside whistler-mode waves deduced from conjugate diffuse aurora

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
• Main Authors: Nishimura, Y., Bortnik, J., Li, W., Thome, R.M., Ni, B., Lyons, L.R., Angelopoulos, V., Ebihara, Y., Bonnell, J. W., Le Contel, Olivier, Auster, U.
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (LPP), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École polytechnique (X)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-PLASM-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Plasma Physics [physics.plasm-ph]; [PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]; South pole
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01552044; https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JA018242

International audience [1] We present simultaneous measurements of dayside diffuse aurora and whistler-mode waves made by the South Pole all-sky imager and two of the THEMIS spacecraft. We found a high correlation between the diffuse aurora intensity at 557.7 nm near the footprint latitudes of THEMIS and whistler-mode wave intensity measured on board. The power in other wave modes was negligibly small in most cases, indicating that the dayside diffuse aurora is driven by precipitating energetic electrons resonating with whistler-mode waves. The high correlation over a wide L* range (6 < L* < 11) further allowed us to magnetically link the wave and magnetospheric plasma distributions with the auroral patterns. Two distinct regions of whistler-mode waves and ambient plasma density were found outside the plasmasphere near the equator: (1) intense waves in a smooth, low density and (2) moderate waves with enhanced and fluctuating density. The whistler-mode wave intensity in the fluctuating plasma density region is positively correlated with the ambient density variations. The corresponding auroral images show an azimuthally elongated diffuse auroral band on the field lines connected to the low density region, as opposed to a structured diffuse aurora on the fluctuating density field lines. Each structured diffuse auroral patch was stable for a few tens of minutes and slowly drifted azimuthally. The high correlation of waves and auroras indicates that the structured diffuse auroral pattern reflects the spatial distribution of whistler-mode waves and ambient plasma density in space. The enhanced density measured by the spacecraft is quasi-spatial and contributes to enhanced growth of whistler-mode waves.