| Summary: | Abstract Very low frequency (VLF) auroral hiss at Kannuslehto (KAN), Finland, was analyzed with reference to the progress of 98 isolated magnetic substorms measured during the winter months of 2015–2018. Of these, 91 were accompanied by auroral hiss during the substorm growth phase. No auroral hiss was recorded during the expansion and recovery phases. We found that auroral hiss was observed under rising polar cap (PC) index, showing an increased solar wind energy input into the magnetosphere during the substorm growth phase. We also found that in 58 of the 65 events studied, KAN was located in the vicinity of enhanced field‐aligned currents (FACs) during auroral hiss occurrence. For the first time, it was established that auroral VLF hiss generation in the equatorial part of the auroral oval is a typical signature of a substorm growth phase. Plain Language Summary Auroral hiss is a well‐known type of nighttime natural VLF emission with a noise‐like structure generated by the Cherenkov instability of precipitating soft electrons above the ionosphere. Auroral hiss occurrence up to 39 kHz was studied in the equatorward region of the auroral oval at the Finnish station Kannuslehto (KAN, MLAT = 64.2°N) during 11 winter months in 2015–2018. During this time interval, 98 isolated and rather powerful magnetic substorms were recorded over Scandinavia. In 93% of the substorms studied, an auroral VLF hiss was recorded at the same time as enhancement of field‐aligned currents (FACs). FACs are caused by soft electron precipitation which could be a plausible source of the auroral VLF hiss generation. For the first time, it was found that auroral VLF hiss occurrence in the equatorward region of the auroral oval is a typical signature of the substorm growth phase.
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