Electrodynamic properties of auroral surges

Abstract

The incoherent scatter radar technique provides an excellent means to study the ionization and electric fields associated with auroral precipitation events. One of the most intense and dynamic auroral events is the so‐called surge or breakup aurora that accompanies auroral substorms. For our purposes we define a surge as a transient intensification of auroral precipitation that occurs simultaneously with a pronounced negative bay in the ground magnetometer data. We present data obtained during five such events in 1980 and 1981. Measurements made by the Chatanika radar are combined with simultaneous data obtained from ground‐based magnetometers and all‐sky cameras and space‐based instruments on the Dynamics Explorer satellites. The combined data sets yield information about the auroral forms, electric fields, and currents that are associated with surges. Prior to the surge, auroral forms move equatorward, develop ray structure, and intensify. The surge is identified by an apparent poleward motion of the aurora producing aurorally associated ionization that extends over several hundred kilometers in latitude. The presurge auroral forms are embedded in a region of northward electric field. The auroral forms that comprise the surge span a region within which the meridional electric field is small and at times southward. A westward electric field is often but not always present within the surge. The behavior of the westward electric field is significantly different from the north‐south field, in that sharp spatial gradients are absent even in very disturbed conditions. Although the westward Hall currents are mostly responsible for the negative bays that accompany the surge, at times the westward Pedersen current sustained by the westward electric field can be important. Sudden variations in the H component of the ground magnetogram can be caused by motions of the aurora or by temporal variations in the fields or conductivities. We present a model that simulates the observed changes in electric field and precipitation that accompany surges. The perturbation in the electric field produced by the surge is simulated by adding negative potential in regions of intense precipitation.