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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 112, A03301, doi:10.1029/2006JA011757, 2007

Pulsating dayside aurora in relation to ion upflow events during a northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) dominated by a strongly negative IMF BY

D. A. Lorentzen

Geophysics Department, University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Norway


P. M. Kintner

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA


J. Moen

Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway


F. Sigernes

Geophysics Department, University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Norway


K. Oksavik

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, USA


Y. Ogawa

Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan


J. Holmes

Geophysics Department, University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Norway


Abstract

We report a study of ion upflow as seen by the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) Svalbard Radar (ESR), initiated by a rotation from interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) BZ negative to IMF BZ positive, under the influence of a strongly negative IMF BY. We combine ground-based instruments, such as meridian scanning photometers (MSP), all-sky imager (ASI) data, and radars, with solar wind data from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft and low-altitude particle precipitation data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-13 spacecraft as well as wave data from the Svalbard EISCAT Rocket Study of Ion Outflows (SERSIO) sounding rocket flight. Following a coronal mass ejection, the solar wind data showed high dynamic pressures (up to 20 n Pa) and a strongly varying IMF. The observed ion upflow was seen to be of a pulsed nature and sustained by pulsed soft electron precipitation. The data findings indicated pulsed lobe reconnection as the mechanism funneling energy and momentum down to the northern polar hemisphere.

Received 30 March 2006; accepted 16 November 2006; published 9 March 2007.

Keywords: dayside aurora; ion upflow.

Index Terms: 2706 Magnetospheric Physics: Cusp; 2704 Magnetospheric Physics: Auroral phenomena (2407); 2736 Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions (2431); 2784 Magnetospheric Physics: Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions; 2411 Ionosphere: Electric fields (2712).

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Citation: Lorentzen, D. A., P. M. Kintner, J. Moen, F. Sigernes, K. Oksavik, Y. Ogawa, and J. Holmes (2007), Pulsating dayside aurora in relation to ion upflow events during a northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) dominated by a strongly negative IMF BY, J. Geophys. Res., 112, A03301, doi:10.1029/2006JA011757.