Production of flickering aurora and field‐aligned electron flux by electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves

Abstract

Recent observations have suggested that flickering aurora is produced by a modulation of the field‐aligned component of the electron flux within an auroral arc. It is proposed that a portion of the field‐aligned electrons are of ionospheric origin and that these electrons are accelerated and their flux modulated by electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves that occur below the main acceleration region on auroral arc field lines. A model of the electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave shows that the parallel phase velocity of the wave increases as the wave propagates toward the ionosphere. A test particle calculation shows that ionospheric electrons trapped or reflected by the wave are accelerated to energies of several keV and that their flux is modulated at the wave frequency. The relative amplitudes of the model wave electric fields are consistent with the observations of small‐scale low‐frequency ionospheric and magnetospheric electric fields near auroral arcs of approximately 10 mV/m and 100 mV/m, respectively. The large‐amplitude ion cyclotron waves also produce a ponderomotive force and a self‐consistent ambipolar electric field. Energy considerations show that the downward energy flux in the electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave can be several percent of the total downward auroral electron energy flux.