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Types of pulsating aurora: comparison of model and EISCAT electron density observations

Types of pulsating aurora: comparison of model and EISCAT electron density observations
Types of pulsating aurora: comparison of model and EISCAT electron density observations

Energetic particle precipitation associated with pulsating aurora (PsA) can reach down to lower mesospheric altitudes and deplete ozone. It is well documented that pulsating aurora is a common phenomenon during substorm recovery phases. This indicates that using magnetic indices to model the chemistry induced by PsA electrons could underestimate the energy deposition in the atmosphere. Integrating satellite measurements of precipitating electrons in models is considered to be an alternative way to account for such an underestimation. One way to do this is to test and validate the existing ion chemistry models using integrated measurements from satellite and ground-based observations. By using satellite measurements, an average or typical spectrum of PsA electrons can be constructed and used as an input in models to study the effects of the energetic electrons in the atmosphere. In this study, we compare electron densities from the EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter scientific radar system) radars with auroral ion chemistry and the energetics model by using pulsating aurora spectra derived from the Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) as an energy input for the model. We found a good agreement between the model and EISCAT electron densities in the region dominated by patchy pulsating aurora. However, the magnitude of the observed electron densities suggests a significant difference in the flux of precipitating electrons for different pulsating aurora types (structures) observed.

0992-7689
1-10
Tesema, Fasil
bf1b3dee-386a-44aa-997d-ab7aedc4d05a
Partamies, Noora
7219021b-a268-41eb-8e75-80550b7cf78f
Whiter, Daniel
9a30d7b6-ea41-44fb-bd52-3ff1964eca5c
Ogawa, Yasunobu
85325b9b-6c1e-49a2-9b56-2cec15e5c852
Tesema, Fasil
bf1b3dee-386a-44aa-997d-ab7aedc4d05a
Partamies, Noora
7219021b-a268-41eb-8e75-80550b7cf78f
Whiter, Daniel
9a30d7b6-ea41-44fb-bd52-3ff1964eca5c
Ogawa, Yasunobu
85325b9b-6c1e-49a2-9b56-2cec15e5c852

Tesema, Fasil, Partamies, Noora, Whiter, Daniel and Ogawa, Yasunobu (2022) Types of pulsating aurora: comparison of model and EISCAT electron density observations. Annales Geophysicae, 40 (1), 1-10. (doi:10.5194/angeo-40-1-2022).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Energetic particle precipitation associated with pulsating aurora (PsA) can reach down to lower mesospheric altitudes and deplete ozone. It is well documented that pulsating aurora is a common phenomenon during substorm recovery phases. This indicates that using magnetic indices to model the chemistry induced by PsA electrons could underestimate the energy deposition in the atmosphere. Integrating satellite measurements of precipitating electrons in models is considered to be an alternative way to account for such an underestimation. One way to do this is to test and validate the existing ion chemistry models using integrated measurements from satellite and ground-based observations. By using satellite measurements, an average or typical spectrum of PsA electrons can be constructed and used as an input in models to study the effects of the energetic electrons in the atmosphere. In this study, we compare electron densities from the EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter scientific radar system) radars with auroral ion chemistry and the energetics model by using pulsating aurora spectra derived from the Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) as an energy input for the model. We found a good agreement between the model and EISCAT electron densities in the region dominated by patchy pulsating aurora. However, the magnitude of the observed electron densities suggests a significant difference in the flux of precipitating electrons for different pulsating aurora types (structures) observed.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 22 November 2021
Published date: 4 January 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: Acknowledgements. The funding support for Fasil Tesema has been provided by the Norwegian Research Council (NRC; CoE grant no. 223252). In addition, the work of Noora Partamies has been supported by NRC (project no. 287427). Publisher Copyright: ©

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 454107
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/454107
ISSN: 0992-7689
PURE UUID: fbcca53f-5970-4355-bdc9-a7d0d93f52df
ORCID for Daniel Whiter: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-232X

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Date deposited: 31 Jan 2022 17:41
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:14

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Contributors

Author: Fasil Tesema
Author: Noora Partamies
Author: Daniel Whiter ORCID iD
Author: Yasunobu Ogawa

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