MIST

By Jennifer Carter, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, UK

Under northward interplanetary magnetic field conditions, when the IMF Bz > 0 nT, non-filamentary auroral emissions may be seen within the dayside polar cap and separate from the main auroral oval. These emissions are associated with lobe reconnection occurring at the high-latitude magnetopause on open field lines. Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain these emissions. The first involves the precipitation of magnetosheath plasma at the footprint of the high-latitude reconnection site, resulting in a “cusp spot”. This cusp spot has been shown to move in response to the east-west (B_Y) orientation of the solar wind. The second mechanism associates the auroral emissions known as High-Latitude Detached Arcs (HiLDAs) with upward field-aligned currents inside the polar cap. Under northward IMF, twin-cell field-aligned currents (NBZ system) can be found inside of the main region 1-region 2 field aligned current system. Under the influence of positive IMF B_Y, the upward NBZ cell expands across the noon sector in the Northern Hemisphere, whereas under negative B_Y, the downward cell will enlarge. The reverse scenario occurs in the Southern Hemisphere for either B_Ydirection.

Previous observations of HiLDAs have been limited to the Northern Hemisphere for a small data set, and previous authors have linked this phenomenon to season, as the HiLDAs have only been detected during the summer. We used concurrent auroral observations from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager (SSUSI) experiment, and FAC distributions constructed from the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE), from the Iridium telecommunication satellite constellation, to perform a large statistical study of HiLDAs under varying IMF for both hemispheres. We observe a patch of auroral emission that is co-located with the upward NBZ FAC in the dayside polar cap in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres under northward IMF conditions.

We observe the HiLDA emission to move in response to changes in the IMF B_Ycomponent (e.g. Figure 1), whereby the HiLDAs are seen to move into the polar cap under positive B_Y, or be pushed up against, and therefore indiscernible from, the main auroral oval under negative B_Y(Northern Hemisphere case). We also support the hypothesis that these emissions are only detectable in the summer hemisphere, indicating a dependence on ionospheric conductivity via photoionisation in the predominantly sunlit hemisphere.

For more information, see the paper below:

Carter, J. A., Milan, S. E., Fogg, A. R., Paxton, L. J., & Anderson, B. J. (2018). The association of high‐latitude dayside aurora with NBZ field‐aligned currents. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 123. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JA025082

Figure 1: Northern Hemisphere summer auroral emissions in the Lyman-Birge-Hopfield long band with overlaid field-aligned current contours, for the Northern (N, row a) and Southern (S, row b) Hemispheres. Clock angles are given in the left-hand column. Interplanetary magnetic field magnitudes are between 5 and 10 nT. Field-aligned current contours are overlaid for upward (red) and downward (turquoise) currents, at absolute magnitudes of 0.1 (solid line), 0.3 (dashed line), and 0.5 (dotted line) μA/m2.